D 

21 


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of  the 

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Form  L  1 

n 


F87 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


OCT  8    'WM^  S9 


i 


OCT  a? 


JUL  2      1931 

*•  h 

2 


,  30  1962 
Haw.    DEC -2 13 6^ 


V1**8 


'orni  ].-!)    5m  L2/2; 


FREEMAN1  S  HISTORICAL  COURSE  FOR  SCHOOLS 


GENERAL    S  K  E         H 


H  I  S  T  O  R  Y 


EDWARD   A.  FREEMAN,  D.C.L. 

Late  Feilo-.K  i-f  Trini;\  '  i  ford. 


ADAPTED   FOR   AMERICAN  STUDENTS 

New   Edition   Revised,  with    Chronological   Table, 
Maps,  and  Index 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY   HOLT   AND   COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT.  1876,  BY 
HKNRY   HOLT. 


TROW'S 
PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  Co. 

-  i  I-;HS, 
105-313  Kast  utA  St., 

NKW    YORK. 


PREFACE  TO  THE    NEW 
EDITION. 

THE  present  edition  has  been  thoroughly  revised 
throughout.  A  Chronological  Table,  a  full  Index, 
and  several  Maps,  illustrating  historical  Geography  at 
different  periods,  have  been  added. 

In  such  a  mass  of  names  and  dates  it  is  impossible 
wholly  to  avoid  slips  both  of  the  pen  and  .of  the 
press.  I  have  tried  to  correct  all  that  I  found  in 
earlier  editions;  but  I.  fear  that  some  may  have 
escaped  me.  I  shall  be  sincerely  thankful  to  any 
one  who  will  point  out  to  me  any  that  he  may  come 
across. 

SXMERLF.AZE,  WELLS, 
April  ^rd,  1876, 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST 
EDITION. 

THE  object  of  the  present  series  is  to  put  forth  cleai 
and  correct  views  of  history  in  simple  language,  and 
in  the  smallest  space  and  cheapest  form  in  which  it 
could  be  done.  It  is  meant  in  the  first  place  for 
schools;  but  it  is  often  found  that  a  book  for  schools 
proves  useful  for  other  readers  as  well,  and  it  is  hoped 
that  this  may  be  the  case  with  the  little  books  the  first 
instalment  of  which  is  now  given  to  the  world.  The 
present  volume  is  meant  to  be  introductory  to  the 
whole  course.  It  is  intended  to  give,  as  its  name  im- 
plies, a  general  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  civilized 
world,  that  is,  of  Europe  and  of  the  lands  which  J  ve 
drawn  their  civilization  from  Europe.  Its  object  is 
to  trace  out  the  general  relations  of  different  periods 
and  different  countries  to  one  another,  without  going 
minutely  into  the  affairs  of  any  particular  country, 
least  of  all  into  those  of  our  own.  This  is  an  object 
of  the  first  importance,  for,  without  clear  notions  of 


»iii  PREFACE. 

general  history,  the  history  of  particular  countries  cat 
never  be  rightly  understood.  This  General  Sketch 
will  be  followed  by  a  series  of  special  histories  of  par- 
ticular countries,  which  will  take  for  granted  the 
main  principles  laid  down  in  the  General  Sketch. 
In  this  series  it  is  hoped  in  time  to  take  in  short 
histories  of  all  the  chief  countries  of  Europe  and 
America,  giving  the  results  of  the  latest  historical 
researches  in  as  simple  a  form  as  may  be.  Those 
of  England  and  Scotland  will  shortly  follow  the 
present  introductory  volume,  and  other  authors  are 
at  work  on  other  parts  of  the  plan.  The  several 
members  of  the  series  will  all  be  so  far  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Editor  as  to  secure  general  ac- 
curacy of  statement,  and  a  general  harmony  of  plan 
and  sentiment  But  each  book  will  be  the  original 
work  of  its  own  author,  and  each  author  will  be 
responsible  for  his  own  treatment  of  the  smaller 
details.  For  his  own  share  of  the  vork  the  Editor 
has,  besides  the  General  Sketch,  taken  the  histories 
of  Rome  and  Switzerland.  The  others  will  be  put 
into  the  hands  of  various  writers,  on  whose  know- 
ledge  and  skill  he  believes  that  he  can  rely. 

SOMERLKAZE,    WELLS, 
23,    1872. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGI 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  NATIONS I 

• 

CHAPTER  II. 

GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES      .....        l8 

CHAPTER  III. 
THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH 49 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  HEATHEN   EMPIRE 82 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE 98 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  EAST IIS 

CHAPTER  VII. 

TKE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE I3<3 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  SAXON    EMPERORS 14$. 


t  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX 

•M;« 

THE   FRANCONIAN    EMPERORS 154 

CHAPTER  X. 

GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES       ....      1 68 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  SWABIAN    EMPERORS 184 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE 209 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN 244 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  GREATNESS  OF  FRANCE 293 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   RISE  OF  RUSSIA 316 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 33<j 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   REUNION  OF  GERMANY  AND   ITALY  ....      363 


LIST   OF    MAPS. 

THE  GREEK  COLONIES Page  24 

DOMINIONS  OF  ALEXANDER  AND  HIS  SUCCESSORS  "  40 
THE  MEDITERRANEAN  LANDS  AT  THE  BEGINNING 

OF  THE  SECOND  PUNIC  WAR "62 

ROMAN  EMPIRE  AT  ITS  GREATEST  EXTENT  .  .  "88 

EUROPE  AT  END  OF  5TH  CENTURY "  104 

EUROPE  UNDER  JUSTINIAN  "  114 

DOMINIONS  OF  THE  EARLY  CALIPHS  ....  "  I2O 

EUROPE  UNDER  CHARLES  THE  GREAT  ....  '«  128 

EUROPE  AT  THE  END  OF  THE  gTH  CENTURY  .  u  130 

EUROPE  IN  THE  I2TH  CENTURY "  158 

EUROPE  TOWARDS  THE  END  OF  THE  I4TH 

CENTURY "  210 

EUROPE  UNDER  CHARLES  THE  FIFTH  ....  "  242 

THE  SPANISH  AND  PORTUGUESE  COLONIES  .  .  "  276 

EUROPE  UNDER  LEWIS  THE  I4TH "  284 

EUROPE  UNDER  BUONAPARTE "  332 

EUROPE  ACCORDING  TO  TREATY  OF  VIENNA  .  .  "  336 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


B.C. 
Messenian  Wars       ......     .....     743-668 

Solon  gives  laws  to  Athens    .     .     -     -     .  MA 

Peisistratos,  Tyrant  of  Athens     .......     56O-527 

Sardis  taken  by  Cyrus  ...........         546 

Poems  of  Theognis  of  Megara    ........         544 

Babylon  taken  by  Cyrus     ..........         538 

Hippias  driven  out  of  Athens     ........         51O 

The  Tarquinii  driven  out  of  Rome  .......         51O 

Battle  of  Marathon  .......     .....        49Q 

Battles  of  Thermopylai  and  Salamis     .....     .         48O 

Battles  of  Plataia  and  Mykale     ........         479 

Confederacy  under  Athens     .     -     ^    -     -     -  r 


Lddci'iliip  of  ^L'tiriklcs  at  Atlicus    ......    444-429 

Early  Greek  Dramatic  Poets  ........    ATQ-aan 

Beginning  of  the  Peloponnesian  War  ........       431 

Thucydides,  fl  .......      ......     c.  431-411 

Xenophon,  fl..     .     ..........     c.  41O-362 

Ailtpni^^  fypfHifirm  acrainst  .^yrnr^ft^  t       T       T       T  4L1  & 

Defeat  of  the  Athenians     ..........         413 

Dionysios  I.,  Tyrant  of  Syracuse     ......    4O6-367 

I<?attle  of  Aigos-potamos    ..........         4O5 

Government  of  the  Thirty  at  Athens     ......         4O4 

Deliverance  of  Athens  by  Thrasyboulos    .....         4O3 

Veii  taken  by  Camillas       .......     ...         396 


tir  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE. 

B.c 

Battle  of  the  Allia  ;  Rome  taken  by  the  Gauls.  .     .     .  39C 

Spartan  Campaigns  in  Asia  Minor 399-394 

Corinthian  War 394 

Peace  of  Antalkidas 387 

Kadmeia  of  Thebes  taken  by  the  Spartans    ....  389 
The  Spartans  driven  out  of  Thebes  ;  leadership  of  Pelo- 

pidos  and  Epameinondas 379 

Olynthian  Confederacy  suppressed  by  Sparta.     .     .     .  379 

Battle  of  Leuktra 371 

Dionysios  II.,  Tyrant  of  Syracuse 367-356 

The  Arkadian  League  ;  foundation  of  Megalopolis      .  369 

Restoration  of  Messene 369 

Lucius  Sextius  first  Plebeian  Consul 366 

Battle  of  Mantineia  ;  death  of  Epameinondas    .     .     .  362 

Philip,  King  of  Macedonia 359 

Demosthenes,  fl c  356-322 

Olynthos  taken  by  Philip 347 

First  Samnite  War 343 

Latin  War 34O 

Battle  of  Chaironeia 338 

Alexander  the  Great,  King  of  Macedonia ..     .     .     .  336 

Thebes  destroyed  by  Alexander 335 

Battle  of  the  Granikos 334 

Battle  of  Issos 333 

Foundation  of  Alexandria 332 

Battle  of  Arbela 331 

Second  Samnite  War 326 

Death  of  Alexander 323 

The  Lamian  War 323 

Submission  of  Athens  to  Antipatros 322 

Beginning  of  Kingdom  of  Pergamos 28O 

Agathokles,  Tyrant  of  Syracuse c.  31O-286 

Battle  of  Ipsos 3O1 

Third  Samnite  War 298-29O 

Pyrrhos,  King  of  Epeiros 295 

Demetrios  Poliorkete's,  King  of  Macedonia   ....  294 

War  between  Pyrrhos  and  the  Romans 281 

Gaulish  invasion  of  Greece  and  Macedonia '.  28O 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  x» 

B.C. 

Revival  of  the  Achaian  League        28O 

Gaulish  Settlement  in  Asia 279 

Battle  of  Beneventura 275 

Death  of  Pyrrhos  at  Argos 272 

Hieron  II.,  King  of  Syracuse 27O-216 

First  Punic  War 264-24.1 

Sikyon  joins  the  Achaian  League 251 

Rise  of  the  Parthian  Dynasty 25 O 

Aratos,  General  of  the  Achaian  League     ....  24-7 

Hamilcar  Barcas,  General  of  the  Carthaginians      .     .         245 

Kleomen£s,  King  of  Sparta 236 

War  between  Rome  and  Illyria 229 

War  between  Sparta  and  the  Achaian  League    .     .     .         227 

Corinth  given  up  to  Ar.tigonos  Doson 223 

Battle  of  Sellasia 221 

Death  of  Kleomenes 221 

Hannibal,  General  of  the  Carthaginians 221 

The  Confederate  War  .     '.     ".     .     .  .     '.     .     .    223-5217 

Second  Punic  War  .     .    ^     -     -     -  —  218 

The  Scipios  in  Spain 218-2O6 

Battle  of  Lake  Trasimene 217 

Battle  of  Cannae 216 

First  Macedonian  War 213-2O5 

Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  in  Africa 2O6-2O1 

Philopoimen,  General  of  the  Achaian  League    .     .     .         2O8 

Battle  of  Zama 2O2 

Second  Macedonian  War .     .         2OO 

Battle  of  Kynoskephale 197 

Defeat  of  Antiochos  the  Great  at  Therm  opylai  .     .     .         191 

Roman  Conquest  of  Cisalpine  Gaul 191 

Defeat  of  Antiochos  at  Magnesia 191 

Roman  Conquest  of  ^Etolia 189 

Polybios,  fl c.    182-146 

Third  Macedonian  War -     ....          171 

The  Lykian  League 168 

Battle  of  Pydna 168 

Third  Punic  War 149 

Fourth  Macedonian  War 149 

Macedonia  becomes  a  Roman  Province 


icvl  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 

B.C 

Carthage  taken  jy  the  Romans  ........  140 

War  between  Rome  and  Achaia  ;  destruction  of  Corinth  146 

Attalos  bequeaths  Pergamos  to  the  Romans  ....  133 

Roman  Conquest  of  Numantia   ........  133 

Tribunate  of  Tiberius  Gracchus  ........  133 

First  Roman  Province  in  Transalpine  Gaul    ....  125 

Tribunate  of  Cains  Gracchus      ........  123 

Jugurthine  War        ...........       111-1O6 

Invasion  of  Gaul  by  Cimbri  and  Teutones     ....  1O9 

Caius  Marius,  Consul    ..........     .  1O7 

Defeat  of  the  Teutones  at  Aquae  Sextiae    .....  1O2 

Defeat  of  the  Cimbri  at  Vercellae          ......  1O1 

The  Social  War  .............  9O 

Civil  War  between  Marius  and  Sulla   .....  88-82 

First  Mithridatic  War  ...........  88 

Battles  of  Chaironeia  and  Orchomenos     .....  87 

Dictatorship  of  Sulla    ...........  82 

Second  Mithridatic  War    ..........  74-64 

Roman  Conquest  of  Syria      .........  64 

Jerusalem  taken  by  Pompeius      ........  63 

Conquests  of  Caesar  in  Gaul  .  ..........  58-51 

lr.v.T>inns  of  Britain  .........  55-54 


Parthian  Expedition  and  Death  of  Crassus    ....  54-53 

Civil  War  of  Pompeius  and  Caesar       ......  49 

Defeat  of  Pompeius  at  Pharsalos     .......  48 

Perpetual   T^jrtntnrship   of  Cfr*SfT      .......  45 

Death  of  Caesar  .............  44 

Second  Civil  War    ............  43 

Battle  of  Philippi     ............  42 

War  between  Caesar  and  Anton  ius  .......  32 

Battle  of  Aktion       ............  31 

Title  of  Augustus  taken  by  Caesar    .......  27 

feeginn'flg  of  {fog  RotOI"  F-mpire          ......  27 

Campaigns  of  Drusus  and  Tiberius  in  Germany  .     .     .  11-9 

A.D. 

Defeat  of  Varus  by  Arminius     .....     ,     .     .  9 

Tiberius,  Emperor    .........     ...  14 

Campaigns  of  Gcrmanicus      .....     ....  15-ie 


Caligula,  Emperor 

Claudius,  Emperor 
Claudius  in  Britain 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  xrtt 

A.D. 


Galba,  Otho,  Vitellius,  Emperors 68-69 

Revolt  of  Civilis ,  69-7  O 

Destruction  of  Jerusalem 7O 

Vespasian,  Emperor ,  7O 

Domitian yg 

Titus 8, 

Final  Conquest  of  Britain  by  Agricola 84 

Dacian  War ,  33 

Nerva 9e 

Trajan 9a 

Hadrian H7 

Antoninus  Pius 133 

Marcus  Aurelius ...... 161 

Commodus .     .     .     .     \     .     .     ~t    "t     ]     [     \ \  13O 

Septimius  Severus .  193 

Antoninus  Caracalla 211 

Alexander  Severus 222 

Sassanirl  Dynasty  in  Ppr«da     .      .     .     .     ...     .     .  ggq 

Valerian 253 

Gallienus 26O 

Kingdom  of  Palmyra 261 

Claudius  II 268 

Defeats  of  the  Goths  by  Claudius 269,  27O 

Aurelian,  Emperor 27O 

Overthrow  of  the  Kingdom  of  Palmyra 273 

Diocletian,  Emperor .     .     .     .-•-    .  Q84 

Maximian,  joint  Emperor  with  Diocletian     .     .     .  286 

Abdications  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian  .     .     .     ,     .  3O5 

Constantine  the  Great  (sole  Emperor) 323 

Foundation  of  Constantinople 324. 

Council  ot  Nikaia 325 

Constantius  (sole  Emperor)    .......     .    ^  .  .     .     .  3SQ 

Campaigns  of  Julian  in  Gaul 856-360 

Julian,  Emperor 36O-363 

I 


xviii  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE. 

A.I). 

The  Goths  cross  the  Danube  ...  ....         376 

Battle  of  Hadrianople 378 

JThcodosius  the  Great  (sole  Emperor)    .     .     .     .     .     .        393 

Arcadius  and  Honorius 395 

Alaric  in  Italy 4O2 

Stilicho  defeats  Alaric 4O3 

Rome  taken  by  Alaric 41O 

The  Roman  Legions  leave  Britain 410 

Beginning  of  the  Gothic  Kingdom  in  Spain  ana  i"iaul  414 

Settlement  of  the  Vandals  in  Africa 429 

English  Conquest  of  Britain  .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     44-9-547 

Defeat  of  Attila  at  Chalons  ..     . 451 

Majorian,  Emperor  in  the  West 457-461 

Reunion  of  the  Empires  under  Zeno 476 

Odoacer  governs  Italy  as  Patrician 476 

Reign  of  Theodoric  in  Italy 493-526 

Justinian,  Emperor 527-565 

Chosroes  or  Nushirvan,  King  of  Persia 531 

Campaigns  of  Belisarius  in  Africa 534 

Italy  recovered  by  Belisarius  and  Narsfc   ....    536-554 

Lombard  Settlements  in  Italy 568 

Birth  of  Mahomet 569 

Maurice,  Emperor 582 

Chosroes  Parviz,  King  of  Persia 59O 

Conversion  of  the  English 597-681 

Phokas,  Emperor 6O2 

Beginning  of  Mahomet's   Mission 6O9 

Heraclius,  Emperor 61O 

Campaigns  of  Chosroes 611-615 

Heraclius  overthrows  the  Persian  power    ....     623-628 

Death  of  Mahomet ;  Abu-Bekr  Caliph 632 

Saracen  Conquest  of  Syria 632-639 

Saracen  Conquest  of  Persia 632-651 

Saracen  Conquest  of  Egypt 638 

Saracen  Conquest  of  Africa 647-7O9 

First  Siege  of  Constantinople     .     .     _ 673 

Carthage  taken  by  the  Saracens       .     '" 698 

Saracen  Con  ]uest  of  Spain 71O-713 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  xi> 

4.D. 

Second  Siege  of  Constantinople .         716 

Leo  the  Isaurian,  Emperor 717 

Iconoclast  Controversy  in  Italy 728 

Battle  of  Tours ;  defeat  of  the  Saracens  by  Charles 

Martel 732 

Constantine  Kopronymos,  Emperor     ....          741-775 

Pippin,  King  of  the  Franks  .........         753 

End  of  the  Ommiad  Dynasty  at  Damascus   .... 

Abd-al-rahman  founds  the  Ommiad  Dynasty  in  Spain  . 

The  Saracens  driven  out  of  Gaul 

Charles  the  Great  overthrows  the  Lombard  Kingdom 

Deposition  of  Constantine  VI 

Charles  the  Great.  Emperor  of  the  West      .... 
Ecgberht,  King  of  the  West-Saxons     .     .     .     .     ;     8O2-837 

Lewis  the  Pious,  Emperor 814 

Saracen  Conquest  of  Crete 82f5 

Saracen  Conquest  of  Sicily £27-87*1 

Treaty  of  Verdun 84O 

Alfred,  King  of  the  West-Saxons 871 

The  Macedonian  Emperors  in  the  East      .     .     .       867-1O26 

Paris  besieged  by  the  Northmen 885 

Division  of  the  Karolingian  Empire     .     .     .     .     .     -         rttrr 

Settlement  of  KolfinGaul 913 

Edward  the  Elder,  Lord  of  all  Britain 924 

?-  Great  crowned  Enope 


Otto  the  Second,  Emperor     .........         972 

Otto  the  Third,  Emperor  ..........         983 

Mahometan  Invasion  of  India  •  ......       1OO1-1O26 

Danish  Conquest  of  Jingland      ......       1O13-1O16 

.Cn-ut,  King  of  all  England     .     1     ^    .     .     .     .      1017-loas 

Edward  the  Confessor  ...........        1O49 

Corrad  II  .....     .'  King  1O24,*  Emperor  1O27 

End  of  the  Ommiad  Dynasty  in  Sp^in      .     .     .     .    .       loai 

Union  of  Burgundy  wit-h  HIP  Fmpirp 


*  In  the  case  of  the  Weuern  Emperors  the  first  date  is  that  of  election  and 
coronation  as  King  or,  in  thjfcase  of  a  King  crowned  in  his  father's  life- 
time, his  accession  as  sole  King  ;  the  second  date  is  that  of  his  coronation  aj 

Emperor. 


w  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE. 

A.D. 

Henrv  III King  1O39,  Emperor  1O46 

Rise  of  the  Seljuk  Turks 1O3I 

Togrel  Beg  helps  the  Caliph  Al  Kayem  against    the 

Dilemites 1O55 

Henry  IV King  1O56,  Emperor  1O84 

Norman  Conquest  of  Sicily 1O6O-1O9O 

Battle  of  Senlac 1O66 

Battle  of  Manzikert 1O71 

Revolt  of  the  Saxons  against  Henry  IV         ....       1O73 

Henry  IV.  at  Canosa 1O77 

Alfonso  of  Leon  takes  Toledo       1O84 

Dynasty  of  the  Almoravides  in  Spain 1O87 

Division  of  the  Seljuk  Empire 1O92 

Council  of  Clermont        1O95 

The  First  Crusade .     .     .       1O96 

Jerusalem  taken  by  the  Crusaders 1O99 

Henry  I.,  King  of  England       .     .     .     .     .     .       11OO-1135 

Henry  V king  noar  E^mr  mi 

Alfonso  of  Aragon  takes  Zaragoza 1118 

John  Komn^nos,  Eastern  Emperor      ....       1118-114-3 

The  Concordat  of  Worms .     .       1122 

Norman  Kingdom  of  Sicily       -     -    ,     t     -     -     ^     .       113O 
Lothar  of  Saxony  .     .     .     .  King  1125,  Kinperur  1133 

Conrad  III.,  King 1138 

Manuel  Komnenos,  Eastern  Emperor 1143 

The  Almohade  Dynasty  in  Spain         1146 

The  Second  Crusade 1147 

Henry  II.  of  England 1154 

-FrpHprir  TUrharnsisa    .     .•     ,  Kfog  1158.  Emperor  1155 

The  Lombard  League 1167 

Conquest  of  Ireland 1171 

Saladin  overthrows  the  Fatimite  Dynasty      ....       1171 
Manuel,  Eastern  Emperor,  defeated  by  the  Turks  .     .       1176 

Philip  Augustus,  King  of  France 118C 

Peace  of  Constanz 1183 

Saladin  takes  Jerusalem f  .     .     .     .     .       1187 

Henry  VI King  11 9O,  Emperor  1191 

Conquest  of  Sicily  by  Henry  VI 1194 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  x» 

A.D. 

Battle  of  Alarcos 1195 

John,  King  of  England 1199 

Alliance  between  the  Crusaders  and  Venetians  .     .     .  12O1 

First  Latin  Siege  and  taking  of  Constantinople     .     .  12O3 

Second  Latin  Conquest  of  Constantinople    ....  12O4 

Theodore  Laskares,  Emperor  of  Nikaia       ....  12O4 

Invasion  of  the  Moguls  under  Tenghiz  Khan      .     ,     .  12O6 

Crusade  apn.inst  the  Alhigpnspg         .  T      .  _      r        fljftpff 

Battle  of  Tolosa 1212 

James  the  Conqueror,  King  of  Aragon    .     .     .       1213-1276 

Battle  of  Bouvines 1214 

The  Great  Charter  granted  by  John 1215 

Henry  III.,  King  of  England 1216-1272 

Ferdinand  III.,   King  of  Castile    .     .     .     .     .        1217-1252 

Frederick  II King  1215,  Emperor  122O 

John  Vatatzes,  Emperor  of  Nikaia 1222 

Mogul  Invasion  of  Persia 1222 

Saint  Lewis  of  France 1226 

Frederick  II.  crowned  King  of  Jerusalem     ....       1228 
The  County  of  Toulouse  joined  to  France     ....       1229 

Ferdinand  III.  unites  Castile  and  Leon '      123O 

The  Teutonic  Order  conquers  Prussia      .     .     .       123O-126O 

Kingdom  of  Granada        1237 

Rise  of  the  Ottoman  Turks 124O 

Battle  of  Lignitz 1241 

Jerusalem  taken  by  the  Chorasmians   ......       1244 

First  Crusade  of  St.  Lewis  of  France 1248 

Death  of  Frederick  II.     Conrad  IV.,  King       .     .     .       125O 

End  of  the  Swabiau  Dynasty 1254 

The  Interregnum  " 1254-1273 

Manfred,  King  of  Sicily 1258 

End  of  the  Bagdad  Caliphate 1258 

Michael  Palaiologos,  Eastern  Emperor 1259 

Recovery  of  Constantinople 1261 

Battle  of  Evesham 1265 

Dante  born 1265 

Conquest  of  Sicily  by  Charles  of  Anjou 1266 

Gregory  X.,  Pope 1271 


«xii  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 

A.1X 

Edward  I.,  King  of  England .       1272 

Rudolf  of  Habsburg,  King 1273-1293 

The  Sicilian  Vespers 1282 

Wales  united  to  England 1282 

Albert,  Duke  of  Austria 1282 

Genoese  Defeat  of  the  Pisans  off  Meloi  la    ....       1284 

Acre  taken  by  the  Mahometans 1291 

Beginning  oEthe  Swiss  League 1291 

Adolf,  King 1292 

Albert  I.,  King 1299 

Battle  of  Courtray 13O2 

Boniface  VIII.,  Pope 1294-13O3 

Clement  V.,  Pope 13OS 

Edward  II.,  King  of  England 13O7 

Popes  at  Avignon 13O9 

Robert,  King  of  Naples 13O9 

Henry  VII King  13O8,  Emperor  1312 

Lewis  of  Bavaria      ....         King  1314,  Emperor  1328 
Philip  the  Fair  annexes  Lyons  to  France      ....        1314 

Battle  of  Mortgarten 1315 

Edward  III.,  King  of  England 1327 

Independence  of  Scotland 1328 

First  Passage  of  the  Turks  into  Europe       .     .       134-1-1347 

Lewis,  King  of  Hungary 1342 

Jane  I.,  Queen  of  Naples 1343 

Battle  of  Crecy 1343 

Rienzi  at  Rome 1347 

Dauphiny  of  Vienne  becomes  an  appanage  of  France  .       1349 

Charles  IV King  1346,  Emperor  1355 

The  Golden  Bull     .    ^ 1356 

Battle  of  Poitiers 1356 

Peace  of  Bretigny  . 136O 

Philip  of  Valois,  Duke  of  Burgundy 1361 

Hadrianople  taken  by  the  Turks 1361 

Battle  of  Najara 1366 

Rise  of  Timour •  1370 

Return  of  the  Popes  to  Rome 1376 

Beginning  of  the  Great  Schism       ...          ...       1378 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  xxiij 

A.D. 

Beginning  of  the  War  of  Chioggia 1378 

Timour  conquers  Persia 138O-I393 

John  the  Great,  King  of  Portugal 1385 

Battle  of  Sempach 1386 

Union  of  Poland  and  Lithuania 1386 

Bajazet,  Sultan  of  the  Ottomans 1389 

Gian  Galeazzo  Viscouti,  Duke  of  Milan 1395 

Victory  of  Bajazet  at  Nikopolis .  1396 

The  Union  of  Calmar 1397 

Bajazet  defeated  by  Timour  at  Angora 14O2 

John  the  Fearless,  Duke  of  Burgundy 14O4 

Death  of  Timour 14O5 

Pisa  becomes  subject  to  Florence 14O6 

Sicily  united  to  Aragon 14O9 

Council  of  Pisa 14O9 

Sig-ismund      ......     King,  141O,  Emperor  1433 

Henry  V.,  King  of  England 1413 

Battle  of  Agincourt     .     .     .     .     .     . . .     . . .  1415 

Council  of  Constanz 1415 

John  Huss  burned 1415 

Alfonso  V.,  King  of  Aragon 1416 

Jane  II.,  Queen  of  Naples 1419 

Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy 1419 

Henry  V.  takes  Rouen 1419 

Treaty  of  Troyes 142O 

Amurath  II.,  Sultan 1421 

Siege  of  Constantinople 1422 

Council  of  Basel 1431 

Treaty  of  Arras 1435 

Council  of  Florence 1439 

Frederick  III King  144O  Emperor  1452 

Battle  of  St.  Jacob  near  Basel 1444 

Battle  of  Varna        1444 

Death  of  Filippo  Maria  Visconti,  Duke  of  Milan  .     .  1447 

Christian  I.,  King  of  Denmark 1448 

Constantine  Palaiologos,  Eastern  Emperor    ....  1448 

Francesco  Sforza  Duke  of  Milan 1450 

Mahomet  II.,  Sultan 1451 


ixiv  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 

A.D. 

End  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War 1453 

The  Turks  take  Constantinople 1453 

Wars  of  York  and  Lancaster 1455-1483 

John  Huniades  drives  back  the  Turks  from  Belgrade  .  1456 

Matthias  Corvinus,  King  of  Hungary       .....  1-458 

Mahomet  II.  conquers  the  Empire  of  Trebizond  .      .  1461 
Casimir  IV.,   King    of    Poland,   wins  West    Prussia 

from  the  Teutonic  Knights 1466 

Union  of  Castile  and  Aragon 1471 

Ivan  Vasilovich  frees  Russia  from  the  Moguls   .     .     .  1477 

Discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 1483 

Conquest  of  Granada 1492 

Christopher  Columbus  discovers  America    ....  1492 

Charles  VIII.  of  France  enters  Italy 1494 

Florence  gets  rid  of  the  Medici        .......  1494 

Pisa  regains  her  liberty -  1494 

Lewis  XII.  of  France  conquers  the  Duchy  of  Milan.  15OO 

Shah  Ismael,  first  Sophi  of  Persia 15O1 

Ferdinand  of  Spain  and  Sicily  conquers  Naples     .     .  15O4 

League  of  Cambray 15O8 

Maximilian  I.  takes  the  title  of  Emperor-elect  .     .     .  15O8 

agHenry  VIII.,  King  of  England      .     .     ,_«.__«     .     .  15O9 

Pope  Julius  II.  forms  the  Holy  League 15J1 

Ferdinand  conquers  Navarre 1512 

Battle  of  Ravenna 1512 

The  Medici  return  to  Florence 1512 

Selim  the  Inflexible,  Sultan 1512 

Germany  divided  into  Circles 1512 

Christian  II.,  King  of  Denmark  and  Norway    .     .     .  1513 

Francis  I.,  King  of  France 1515 

Battle  of  Marignano 1515 

'  Charles  V.,  (I.)  King  of  Spain 1516 

Beginning  of  the  Reformatioji 1517 

Charles  V.  elected  Emperor 1519 

Ulrich  Zwingli  preaches  at  Zurich 1519 

Christian  II.  of  Denmark  becomes  King  of  Norway  .  152O 
Mexico  conquered  by  Hemando  Cortez  ....       1519-21 

guleiman  the  Lawgiver,  Sultan 152O 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  xx« 

A.D. 

Suleiman  takes  Belgrade ...  1521 

War  between  Charles  V.  and  Francis  I.    .     .     .     .     •  1521 

Luther  before  the  Diet  of  Worms .  1521 

Knights  of  St.  John  driven  out  of  Rhodes     ....  15223 

Gustavus  Vasa,  King  of  Sweden <  1523 

Frederick  L,  King  of  Denmark  and  Norway     .     .     .  1523 

Battle  of  Pavia 1525 

Foundation  of  the  Duchy  of  Prussia 1525 

Lewis  II.  of  Hungary  killed  at  the  Battle  of  Mohacs  1526 

Baber,  Emperor  of  Hindostan 1326 

Sack  of  Rome  by  the  Imperialists 1527 

The  Medici  driven  out  of  Florence 1527 

Peace  of  Cambray 1529 

Diet  of  Speyer 1529 

Sultan  Suleiman  besieges  Vienna 1529 

Charles  V.  crowned  Emperor 153O 

Fall  of  Florence 153O 

Confession  of  Augsburg 153O 

The  Portuguese  colonize  Brazil 1531 

The  Smalcaldic  League 1531 

Death  of  Zwingli 1531 

Peru  conquened  by  Francisco  Pizarro  ....       1532-1536 

Ivan  IV.  (the  Terrible),  Czar  of  Russia 1533 

Duke  Charles  of  Savoy  besieges  Geneva       ....  1534 

The  Society  of  Jesus  founded  by  Ignatius  Loyola  .     .  154O 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots 1542 

Nizza  besieged  by  the  Turks 1543 

Council  of  Trent 1545 

Death  of  Luther 1546 

Henry  II.  of  France 1547 

Edward  VI.  of  England 1547 

Henry  II.  of  France  seizes  the  Three  Bishopricks.     .  *  1552 

Mary,  Queen  of  England 1553 

The  Fall  of  Sienna 1555 

Abdication  of  Charles  V.      .     , 1555 

Peace  of  Augsburg 1555 

Philip  II.  of  Spain 15S6 

Akbar,  Emperor  of  Hindostan 1550 


ucvi  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 

A.D. 

Cosmo  de'  Medici,  Duke  of  Florence,  gets  possession 

of  Sienna 1557 

Battles  of  St.  Quentin  and  Gravelines 1557 

The  French  take  Calais 18 

Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England 18 

ce  of  Cateau-Cambresis *     .     .  1559 

Francis  II.  of  France       % 1559 

Frederick  II.  of  Denmark  and  Norway 1559 

Charles  IX.  of  France 156O 

Death  of  Gustavus  Vasa 156O 

Religious  Wars  in  France  begin 1562 

First  French  Settlement  of  Carolina 1562 

Cyprus  taken  by  the  Turks 1571 

Battle  of  Lepanto 1571 

Massacre  ol  Saint  Bartholomew i572 

The  Polish  Crown  becomes  purely  elective  ....  is  73 

Henry  III.  of  France 1574 

Philip  II.  annexes  Portugal  to  Spain 15»t»o 

Charles  Emmanuel,  Duke  of  Savoy 158O 

Union  of  the  Seven  Provinces 1581 

Death  of  William  the  Silent 1584 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh  founds  the  Colony  of  Virginia      .  1585 

Mary  of  Scotland  beheaded 1587 

Philip  II.  sends  the  Armada  against  England    .     .     .  1588 

Christian  IV.  of  Denmark  and  Norway 1588 

Henry  IV.  of  France 1589 

End  of  the  Dynasty  of  Ruric  in  Russia 1589 

Philip  III.  of  Spain 1598 

Treaty  of  Lyons 16O1 

James  I.  of  England ?  16O3 

Jehangir,  Emperor  of  Hindostan 16O5 

Lewis  XIII.  of  France 161O 

Expulsion  of  the  Moriscos  from  Spain 161O 

Union  of  Prussia  and  Brandenburg 1611 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden 1611 

Beginning  of  the  Romanoff  Dynasty  in  Russia       .     .  1613 

Beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War 1618 

Philip  IV.  of  Spain 1681 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  xxvii 

A.  P. 

Massacre  of  Amboyna • 1623 

Christian  IV.  of  Denmark  Head   of  the    Protestant 

League 1625 

Charles  I.  of  England 1625 

Shah  Jehan,  Emperor  of  Hindostan 1627 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  Head  of  the  Protestant  League  .  163O 

Battle  of  Liitzen 1632 

Christina,  Queen  of  Sw  iden 1632 

Ferdinand  III.,  Emperor 1637 

Beginning  of  the  Dynasty  of  Braganza  in  Portugal     .  1639 

English  Settlement  at  Madras 164O 

Lewis  XIV.  of  France 164-3 

War  of  Candia 164-5 

Peace  of  Westphalia  .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .  1648 

Charlft;  I.  of  England  beheaded 1649 

Oliver  Cromwell,  Protector  of  Eng'.and 1653 

Prussia  independent  of  Poland  .     . 1657 

Death  of  Oliver  Cromwell 1658 

Leopold  I.  Emperor 1658 

Aurungzebe,  Emperor  of  Hindostan 1658 

Peace  of  the  Pyrenees 1659 

Restoration  of  Charles  II.  of  England 166O 

Treaties  of  Oliva  and  Copenhagen 166O 

Denmark  becomes  an  absolute  Monarchy     ....  166O 

Charles  II.  sells  Dunkirk  to  Lewis  XIV 1663 

War  between  England  and  the  United  Provinces     1664-1667 

The  Plague  of  London 1665 

The  Great  Fire  of  London 1666 

Lewis   XIV.    conquers  Franche   Comte  and  part  of 

Flanders 1667 

The  Triple  Alliance  against  Lewis  XIV 1638 

The  Turks  take  Candia 1869 

William  III.,  Stadholder 1672 

John  Sobieski,  King  of  Poland 1674 

Peace  of  Nimwegen 1678-1679 

Lewis  XIV.  seizes  Strassburg 1681 

Sweden  becomes  an  absolute  Monarchy  .....  1682 

The  Turks  besiege  Vienna 1683 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 

A.D. 

Lewis  XIV.  revokes  the  Edict  of  Nantes    ....  1685 

James  II.  of  England 1685 

The  Hungarian  Crown  becoir.es  hereditary  ....  1687 

Lewis  XIV.  seizes  Avignon 1688 

William  and  Mary,  King  and  Queen  of  England  .     .  1689 

Peter  the  Great,  sole  Emperor  of  Russia      ....  1689 

•  Russian  Conquest  of  Azof 1696 

Peace  of  Ryswick 1697 

Charles  XII.,   Kin- of  Sweden 1697 

Augustus  the  Strong,  King  of  Poland 1697 

English  Settlement  at  Calcutta 1698 

Peace  of  Carlowitz 1699 

Battle  of  Narva 17OO 

War  of  the  Spanish  Succession 17OO 

Frederick  I.,  first  King  of  Prussia *17O1 

Anne,  Queen  of  England 17  OS 

Stanislaus,  Kiiig  of  Poland 17O4 

Gibraltar  taken  by  the  English 17O4 

Joseph  I.,  Emperor 17O5 

Union  of  England  and  Scotland 17O7 

Beginning  of  the  East  India  Company 17O8 

Charlfes  VI.,  Emperor 1711 

Treaty  of  Utrecht 1713 

Victor  Amadeus  II.  of  Savoy,  King  of  Sicily  .     .     .  1713 

Frederick  William  I.,  King  of  Prussia 1714 

George  I.  of  England 1714 

Lewis  XV.  of  France 1715 

War  between  Austria  and  Turkey 1715 

The  Turks  win  back  Peloponnesos  from  Yenica     .     .  1715 

Jacobite  Rebellion  in  England 1715 

Peace  of  Passarowitz  ........          .     .  1713 

Death  of  Charles  XII 1718 

Quadruple  Alliance  against  Spain 1718 

Victor  Amadeus  II.,  King  of  Sardinia 172O 

The  Pragmatic  Sanction 1 720 

Mahmoud  I.,  Sultan 1730 

War  of  the  Polish  Election 1733 

Peace  of  Belgrade        ............  i73«* 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  xxu 

A.D. 

Maria  Theresa,  Queen  of  Hungary 174O 

Frederick  II.  (the  Great)  of  Prussia 174O 

Frederick  conquers  Silesia 174O 

War  of  the  Austrian  Succession     ...'..       1741-174& 

Charles  VII.,  Emperor 1742 

Francis  I.,  Emperor .  174-5 

Second  Jacobite  Rebellion 1745 

Battle  of  Culloden »  1746 

William   IV.    Hereditary  Stadholder 1747 

The  Seven  Years'  War .--...  1756 

Suraj-ad-dowla  takes  Calcutta 1756 

Battle  of  Plassey 1757 

English  Conquest  of  Canada 1759 

George  III.  of  England 176O 

The  Family  Compact 1761 

Catharine  II.,  Empress  of  Russia 1762 

Russian  conquest  of  Crim  Tartary 1762 

Peace  of  Paris 1763 

Joseph  II.,  Emperor 1765 

Annexation  of  Lorraine  to  France 1766 

Annexation  of  Corsica  to  France 1768 

First  Partition  of  Poland 1772 

Abolition  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  .......  1773 

Peace  of  Kainardji 1774 

Lewis  XVI.  of  France 1774 

Revolt  of  the  American  Colonies 1775 

Declaration  of  Independence 1776 

Independence  of  Ireland 1782 

Convocation  of  States-General  in  France     ....  1789 

Constitution  of  the  United  States 1789 

Selim  III.,  Sultan 1789 

Leopold  II.,  Emperor 179O 

Francis  II.,  Emperor 1793 

National  Convention  m  France 1792 

Treaty  of  Jassy 1792 

Wars  of  the  French  Revolution 1793-1815 

Second  Partition  of  Poland .  1793 

Execution  of  Lewis  XVI ....  1793 


txx  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 

A.  a 

Third  Pirtitionof  Poland 1795 

Batavian  Republic 1796 

Paul,  Emperor  of  Russia .  1796 

Helvetic  Republic  . ' 1798 

Battle  of  the  Nile 1798 

Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 18OO 

Alexander,  Emperor  of  Russia 18O1 

Peace  of  Lunevill. 18O1 

Peace  of  Amiens 18O2 

Napoleon  Buonaparte,  Emperor  of  the  Frgnrh      .     .  18O4 

Buonaparte,  King  of  Italy 18O5 

Battle  of  Austerlitz 18O5 

Peace  of  Pressburg 18O5 

Battle  of  Trafalgar 18O5 

Francis  II.  resigns  the  Imperial  Crown    .....  18O6 

Battle  of  Jena laoe 

Peace  of  Tilsit        18O7 

Mahntoud  II.  Sultan        18O7 

The  Peninsular  War  begins 18O8 

Battle  of  Wagram 18O9 

Revolt  of  the  Spanish  Colonies  in  America       .     .     .  181O 

French  Invasion  of  Russia 1812 

War  between  England  and  the  United  States    .       1813-1815 

Battle  of  Leipzig 1813 

First  Peace  of  Paris 1814. 

Abdication  of  Napoleon  Buonaparte 1814 

Congress  of  Vienna 1815 

Return  of  Buonaparte.     Battle  of  Waterloo     .     .     .  1816 

Second  Peace  of  Paris 1815 

The  German  Confederation 1815 

Greek  War  of  Independence 1821 

Separation  of  Brazil  from  Portugal 1822 

Charles  X.  of  France        1824 

Nicholas,  Emperor  of  Russia 1825 

Battle  of  Navarino 1827 

War  between  Russia  and  Turkey 1828 

French  Revolution  of  July 183O 

Separation  of  Belgium  from  the  Netherlands    .     .     .  1830 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  xxxk 

A.D. 

Insurrection  in  Central  Italj 1831 

Polish  Revolution 1B31 

Civil  War  in  Spain 1833 

Indeyendence  of  Egypt 1841 

Tius  IX.,  Pope 1846 

War  of  the  Sonderbund  in  Switzerland 1847 

Frederick  VII.  of  Denmark 1848 

Second  French  Republic 1848 

Louis  Napoleon  Buonaparte,  President    .....  1848 

First  War  of  Independence  in  Italy 1848 

War  of  Sleswick  and  Holbtein 1848 

Swiss  Federal  Constitution 1848 

Battle  of  Novara 1849 

Victor  Emmanuel  II.,  King  of  Sardinia 1849 

Fall  of  Rome  and  Venice 1849 

French  Republic  destroyed  by  Louis  Napoleon  Buona- 
parte   18S1 

Buonaparte  calls  himself  Emperor 1852 

The  Crimean  War 1854-1854 

Alexander  II.,  Emperor  oi  Russia 1855 

Indian  Mutiny 1857 

Freedom  of  Lombardy 1859 

Garibaldi  frees  Sicily  and  Naples  . I860 

Victor  Emmanuel,  King  of  Italy 1861 

Secession  War  in  America 1861 

Polish  Revolt ». 1863 

Battle  of  Konigsgratz 1866 

Sleswick  and  Holstein  joined  to  Prussia  .     .....  1866 

France  declares  war  against  Prussia 187O 

Battle  of  Sedan \  87O 

Rome  the  Capital  of  Italy 187O 

William  I.  of  Prussia,   German  Emperor    .     .     .     .  1871 

Swendernf  Paris 1O71 

Peace  of  Frankfurt l«71 


GENERAL  SKETCH 

OF 

HISTORY. 

CHAPTER  I. 

ORIGIN   OF   THE   NATIONS. 

Oifferent  nations  of  the  world  (\) — difference  between  East 
and  West  (2) — the  Aryan  nations  (3) — connexion 
among  their  languages  (3) — amount  of  progress  made 
by  them  before  tJieir  dispersion  (4) — their  advances  in 
religion  and  government  (5) — the  Semitic  nations  (6) 
— their  religious  influence  on  the  world  (6) — the  Tu- 
ranian and  other  Non-Aryan  nations  (7) — tJieir  extent 
in  Asia  (7) — traces  of  them  in  Europe  (7) — movements 
of  the  Aryans  in  Europe  and  Asia  (8)— geographical 
shape  of  Europe  (9) — the  tliree  great  peninsulas  (10) — 
advance  of  the  successive  Aryan  swarms  (n) — the 
Greeks  and  Italians  (i  1, 12) — the  Celts  (12) — the  Teutons 
(13) — the  Slaves  and  Lithuanians  (14) — later  Turanian 
settlements  in  Europe;  Hungarians  and  Tttrks  (14) — 
different  degrees  of  importance  among  the  Aryans  of 
Europe  (15) — Rome  the  central  point  of  all  European 
History  (i) — Division  of  periods  before  and  after  the 
Roman  Dominion  (16). 

i.  Different  Aspects  of  History. — The  history 
of  the  various  nations  of  mankind  may  be  looked  at 
in  many  and  very  different  ways ;  and  the  importance 


2  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [CHAP 

of  different  parts  of  history  varies  widely  according  to 
the  way  in  "which  they  are  looked  at.  One  who  wishes 
to  trace  out  the  history  of  religion,  or  of  language,  or 
of  manners  and  customs,  will  often  find  as  much  that 
is  useful  for  his  purpose  among  savage  nations,  who 
have  played  no  important  part  in  the  world,  as  among 
the  most  famous  and  civilized  people.  But  researches 
of  this  sort  cannot  be  put  together  into  a  continuous 
tale ;  they  are  not  history  strictly  so  called.  By  history 
in  the  highest  sense  we  understand  the  history  of 
those  nations  which  have  really  influenced  one  another, 
so  that  their  whole  story,  from  the  beginning  to  our 
own  time,  forms  one  tale,  of  which,  if  we  wholly  leave 
out  any  part,  we  cannot  rightly  understand  what  fol- 
lows it  Such  a  history  as  this  is  found  only  in  the 
history  of  the  chief  nations  of  Europe,  and  of  those 
nations  of  Asia  and  Africa  which  have  had  most  to 
do  with  them. 

2.  Difference  between  East  and  West. — 
Between  the  history  of  the  East,  as  we  may  vaguely 
call  it,  that  is  chiefly  the  history  of  Asia  and  Africa, 
and  the  history  of  the  Western  world  in  Europe 
and  America,  the  gap  is  in  many  ways  wide.  To 
take  one  point  of  difference  among  many,  the  his- 
tory of  the  East  does  not  give  the  same  political 
teaching  as  that  of  the  West.  It  is  in  a  much  greater 
degree  the  history  of  a  mere  succession  of  empires 
and  dynasties,  and  in  a  much  less  degree  the  history 
of  the  people.  We  shall  therefore  do  right  if  we  deal 
with  the  history  of  the  West  as  our  main  subject,  and 
treat  of  the  history  of  the  East  only  so  far  as  it  bears 
on  the  history  of  the  West.  For  history  in  the  highest 
sense,  for  the  history  of  man  in  his  highest  political 
character,  for  the  highest  developements  of  art,  Jitera- 
ture,  and  political  freedom,  we  must  look  to  that  family 
of  mankind  to  which  we  ourselves  belong,  and  to  that 
division  of  the  world  in  which  we  oursflves  dwell. 
The  branch  of  history  which  is  history  in  the 


I.]  EAST  AND  WEST.  3 

and  truest  sense  is  the  history  of  the  Aryan  nations 
of  Europe,  and  of  those  who  have  in  later  times  gone 
forth  from  among  them  to  carry  the  arts  and  languages 
of  Europe  into  other  continents.  The  history  of  these 
nations  forms  Western  or  European  history,  the  history 
of  Europe  and  of  European  Colonies.  But  here  too 
we  shall  nnd  some  periods  and  countries  of  higher 
interest  and  importance  than  others.  Still  the  whole 
from  the  earliest  times  to  which  we  can  trace  it  back, 
forms  one  connected  story.  No  part  is  altogether 
void  of  interest  in  itself,  none  is  altogether  cut  off 
from  connexion  with  the  general  thread  of  continuous 
history.  And  with  regard  to  particular  times  and 
places,  this  part  of  history  reaches  the  highest  degree 
of  interest  and  importance  that  history  can  reach.  It 
takes  in  the  history  of  those  times  and  places  which 
most  directly  concern  ourselves,  and  it  takes  in  the 
history  of  those  times  and  places  which  have  had  the 
deepest  and  most  lasting  influence  on  the  world  in 
general.  It  is  then  to  the  history  of  Europe,  and  of 
the  Aryan  nations  in  Europe  and  in  European  colonies 
elsewhere,  that  the  present  sketch,  and  the  more  de- 
tailed histories  which  are  to  follow  it,  will  mainly  be 
devoted.  The  history  of  other  parts  of  the  world, 
and  of  other  families  of  the  human  race,  will  be  dealt 
with  only  so  far  as  those  other  nations  and  countries 
are  brought  into  connexion  with  the  long  unbroken 
tale  of  European  history. 

3.  The  Aryan  Nations. — Some  readers  may 
perhaps  by  this  time  have  asked  what  is  to  be  under- 
stood by  a  word  which  has  been  already  used  more 
than  once,  namely,  the  Aryan  nations.  That  is  the 
name  which  is  now  generally  used  to  express  that 
division  of  the  human  race  to  which  we  ourselves  be- 
long, that  which  takes  in  nearly  all  the  present  nations 
of  Europe  and  several  of  the  chief  nations  of  Asia. 
The  evidence  of  language  shows  that  there  was  a 
time,  a  time  of  course  long  before  the  beginning  of 


4  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NA  TIONS.  [CHAP 

recorded  history,  when  the  forefathers  of  all  these 
nations  were  one  people,  speaking  one  language. 
Sanscrit,  that  is  the  ancient  language  of  India,  Persian^ 
Greek,  Latin,  English,  and  other  tongues,  many  of 
which  we  shall  soon  have  occasion  to  speak  of,  are 
really  only  dialects  of  one  common  speech.  They 
show  their  common  origin  both  by  their  grammatical 
forms,  such  as  the  endings  of  nouns  and  verbs  and  the 
like,  and  also  in  a  way  which  is  more  easily  understood 
by  people  in  general,  by  their  still  having  many  of  the 
commonest  and  most  necessary  words,  those  words 
without  which  no  language  can  get  on,  essentially  the 
same.  Now  many  of  the  nations  which  now  speak 
these  languages  have  for  ages  been  so  far  parted  from 
one  another  that  it  is  quite  impossible  that  they  can 
have  borrowed  these  words,  and  still  less  these  gram- 
matical forms,  from  one  another.  We  can  thus  see 
that  all  these  nations  are  really  kinsfolk,  that  they 
once  were  only  one  nation,  the  different  branches  of 
which  parted  off  from  one  another  at  a  time  long 
before  written  history  begins. 

4.  Early  State  of  the  Aryan  Nations. — But 
what  we  know  of  the  languages  of  the  various  Aryan 
nations  tells  us  something  more  than  this.  By  the 
nature  of  the  words  which  are  common  to  all  or  most 
of  the  kindred  tongues,  we  can  see  what  steps  the 
forefathers  of  these  various  nations  had  already  taken 
in  the  way  of  social  life  and  regular  government  in 
the  days  before  they  parted  asunder.  And  we  can 
see  that  those  steps  were  no  small  steps.  Before  there 
were  such  nations  as  Hindoos  and  Greeks  and  Ger- 
mans, while  the  common  forefathers  of  all  were  still 
only  one  people,  they  had  risen  far  indeed  above  the 
state  of  mere  savages.  They  had  already  learned  to 
build  houses,  to  plough  the  ground,  and  to  grind  their 
corn  in  a  mill.  Tins  is  shown  by  the  words  for 
ploughing,  building,  and  grinding  being  still  nearly  the 
same  in  all  the  kindred  languages.  It  is  i-asy  for  any- 


I.]  THE  EARLY  ARYANS.  5 

one  to  see  that  the  word  mill  is  the  same  as  the  Latin 
mo/a,  and  that  the  old  word  to  ear — that  is,  to  plough 
— the  ground,  which  is  sometimes  used  in  the  Old 
Testament,  is  the  same  as  the  Latin  arare,  which  has 
the  same  meaning.  But  no  one  ought  to  fancy  that 
the  English  word  is  derived  from  the  Latin,  or  that 
we  learned  the  use  of  the  thing  from  any  people  who 
spoke  Latin,  because  the  same  words  are  found  also  in 
many  other  of  the  kindred  languages,  even  those  which 
are  spoken  in  countries  which  are  furthest  removed 
from  one  another.  We  see  then  that  words  of  this 
kind — and  I  have  chosen  only  two  out  of  many — are 
regally  fragments  remaining  from  the  old  common  lan- 
guage which  was  spoken  by  our  common  forefathers 
before  they  branched  off  and  became  different  nations. 
It  is  therefore  quite  plain  that  the  things  themselves, 
the  names  of  which  have  thus  been  kept  in  30  many 
different  languages  for  thousands  of  years,  were  already 
known  to  the  Aryan  people  before  they  parted  into 
different  nations.  And  I  need  not  say  that  people 
who  build  houses,  plough  the  ground,  and  grind  their 
corn,  though  they  may  still  have  very  much  to  learn, 
are  in  a  much  higher  state  than  the  people  in  some 
parts  of  the  world  are  in  even  now. 

5.  Early  Aryan  Religion  and  Government. 
— But  language  again  tells  something  more  of  the 
early  Aryan  people  besides  the  progress  which  they 
had  made  in  the  merely  mechanical  arts.  We  find 
that  the  names  for  various  family  relations,  for  the 
different  degrees  of  kindred  and  affinity,  father,  mother, 
brother,  sister,  and  the  like,  are  the  same  in  all  or 
most  of  the  kindred  tongues.  We  see  then  that, 
before  the  separation,  the  family  life,  the  groundwork 
of  all  society  and  government,  was  already  well  un- 
derstood and  fully  established.  And  we  see  too  that 
regular  government  itself  had  already  begun ;  for 
words  meaning  king  orrulerz.ro.  the  same  in  languages 
so  far  distant  from  one  another  as  Sanscrit,  Latin,  and 


6  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NA  77OA19.  [CHAP. 

English.  The  Latin  words  rex,  regtre,  regnum,  are  the 
same  as  the  Old-English  riea,  rixt'an,  rice,  words  which 
have  dropped  out  of  the  language,  but  which  still  re 
main  ir  the  ending  of  such  words  as  bishoprick,  where 
the  last  syllable  means  government  or  possession.  And 
we  can  also  see  that  the  Aryins  before  their  dispersion 
had  already  something  of  a  religion.  For  there  is  a 
common  stock  of  words  and  tales  common  to  most  of 
the  Aryan  nations,  many  of  which  they  cannot  have 
borrowed  from  one  another,  and  which  point  to  an 
early  reverence  fof  the  great  powers  of  the  natural 
world.  Thus  the  same  name  for  the  sky,  or  for  the 
great  God  of  the  sky,  appears  in  many  of  the  kindred 
languages,  as  Dyaus  in  Sanscrit,  Zeus  in  Greek,  and 
the  Old-English  God  Tiw,  from  whom  we  still  call  the 
third  day  of  the  week  Tiwcsdag  or  Tuesday.  And 
there  are  a  number  of  stories  about  various  Gods  and 
heroes  found  among  different  Aryan  nations,  all  of 
which  seem  to  come  from  one  common  source.  And 
we  may  go  on  and  see  that  the  first  glimpses  which 
we  can  get  of  the  forms  of  government  in  the  early 
days  of  the  kindred  nations  show  them  to  have  been 
wonderfully  like  one  another.  Alike  among  the  old 
Greeks,  the  old  Italians,  and  the  old  Germans,  there 
was  a  King  or  chief  with  limited  power,  there  was  a 
smaller  Council  of  nobles  or  of  old  men,  and  a  general 
Assembly  of  the  whole  people.  Such  was  the  old  con- 
stitution of  England,  out  of  which  the  present  consti- 
tution has  grown  step  by  step.  But  there  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  this  was  at  all  peculiar  to  England,  or 
even  peculiar  to  those  nations  who  are  most  nearly 
akin  to  the  English.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  this  form  of  government,  in  which  every  man 
had  a  place,  though  some  had  a  greater  place  than 
others,  was  really  one  of  the  possessions  which  we 
have  in  common  with  the  whole  Aryan  family.  We 
see  then  that  the  common  Aryan  forefathers,  in  the 
times  when  they  were  still  one  people,  times  so  long 


t]  THE  SEMITIC  NATIONS.  J 

ago  that  we  cannot  hope  to  give  them  any  certain  date 
had  already  made  advances  in  civilization  which  placed 
them  far  above  mere  savages.  They  already  had  the 
family  life ;  they  already  had  the  beginnings  of  religion 
and  government ;  and  they  already  knew  most  of  those 
simple  arts  which  are  most  needed  for  the  comfort  of 
human  life. 

6.  The  Semitic  Nations. — Such  then  were  the^ 
original  Aryans — that  one  among  the  great  families  of 
mankind  to  which  we  ourselves  belong,  and  that  which 
has  played  the  greatest  part  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Still  the  Aryan  nations  are  only  a  small  part 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  It  is  not  needful  for 
our  purpose  to  speak  at  any  length  of  the  nations 
which  are  not  Aryan  ;  but  a  few  words  must  be  given 
to  the  two  great  families  which  have  always  pretty  well 
divided  Europe  and  Asia  with  the  Aryans,  and 
with  whom  the  history  of  the  Aryans  is  constantly 
coming  in  contact.  Next  in  importance  to  the  Aryans 
we  must  place  those  that  are  called  the  Semitic  nations, 
among  which  we  have  most  to  do  with  the  Hebrews, 
the  Phoenicians,  and  the  Arabs.  And  in  one  point  we 
must  set  them  even  above  the  Aryans ;  for  the  three 
religions  which  have  taught  men  that  there  is  but  on-e 
God — the  Jewish,  the  Christian,  and  the  Mahometan 
— have  all  come  from  among  them.  But  those  among 
the  Semitic  nations  to  whom  this  great  truth  was  not 
known  seem  often  to  have  fallen  into  lower  forms  of 
idolatry  than  the  Aryans.  Now  the  Semitic  nations 
have,  so  to  speak,  kept  much  closer  together  than  the 
Aryans  have.  They  have  always  occupied  a  much 
smaller  portion  of  the  world  than  the  Aryans,  and  they 
have  kept  much  more  in  the* same  part  of  the  world. 
Their  chief  seats  have  always  been  in  south-western 
Asia  ;  and,  though  they  have  spread  themselves  thence 
into  distant  parts  of  the  world,  in  Asia,  Africa,  and 
even  Europe,  yet  this  has  mainly  been  by  settlements 
in  comparatively  late  times,  about  whose  history  wt 


8  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NA  TIONS.  [CHAP. 

know-something.  Their  languages  also  have  parted 
off  much  less  from  one  another  than  the  Aryan 
languages  have  ;  the  Semitic  nations  have  thus  always 
kept  up  more  of  the  character  of  one  family  than  the 
Aryans. 

7.  The  Turanian  Nations. — The  rest  of  Asia, 
which  is  not  occupied  either  by  Aryan  or  by  Semitic 
people,  is  occupied  by  various  nations  whose  tongues 
differ  far  more  widely  from  one  another  than  the  Aryan 
tongues  do.     Still  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  many 
of  them  at  least  were  originally  one  people,  and  at  all 
events   it  is   convenient   for   our   purposes   to   class 
together  all  those  nations  of  Europe  and  Asia  which 
are  neither  Aryan  nor  Semitic.      The  people  of  the 
greater  part  of  Asia  are   commonly   known   as   the 
Turanian  nations.     In  the  old  Persian  stories  Turan, 
the  land  of  darkness,  is  opposed  to  Iran  or  Aria,  the 
land  of  light ;  and  it  is  from  this  Iran,  the  old  name- 
of  Persia,  that  it  has  been  thought  convenient  to  give 
the  whole  family  the  name  of  Aryans.      And  besides 
that  large  part  of  Asia  which  is  still  occupied  by  the 
Turanians,  it  is  plain  that  in  earlier  times  they  occupied 
a  large  part  of  Europe  also.      But  the  Aryans  have 
driven  them  out  of  nearly  all  Europe,  except  a  few 
remnants  in  out-of-the-way  corners,  such  as  the  Pins 
and  Laps  in  the  north.      The  Basques  also  on  the 
borders   of  Spain   and   Gaul,   whether  akin   to   the 
Turanians   or   not,   are   at  least   neither  Aryan  nor 
Semitic,   so  that  for  our  purpose   they   may  all   go 
together.    Except  these  few  remnants  of  the  old  races, 
all  Europe  has  been  Aryan  since  the  beginning  of 
written    history,   except   when   Senrtic   or  Turanian 
invaders  have  come  in  later  times.     But  in  Asia  the 
nations   which  are  neither  Aryan   nor  Semitic,  the 
Chinese,   Mongols,    Turks,   and   others,  still  far  out- 
number the  Aryan  and  Semitic  nations  put  together. 

8.  The  Aryan  Dispersion. — We  have  seen  that 
there  was  a  time.  long  before  the  beginning  of  recorded 


I. J  THE  ARYAN  DISPERSION.  9 

history,  when  the  forefathers  of  the  various  Aryans 
dwelled  together  as  one  people,  speaking  one  iitnguage. 
And  the  advances  which  they  had  made  towards 
civilization  show  that  they  must  have  dwelled  together 
for  a  long  time,  but  a  time  whose  length  we  cannot 
undertake  to  measure.  Nor  can  we  undertake  to  fix 
a  date  for  the  time  of  the  great  separation,  when  the 
families  which  had  hitherto  dwelled  together  parted 
off  in  different  directions  and  became  different  nations, 
speaking  tongues  which  are  easily  seen  to  be  near  akin 
to  each  other,  but  which  gradually  parted  from  one 
another  so  that  different  nations  could  no  longer 
understand  each  other's  speech.  All  that  we  caji  say 
is  that  these  are  things  which  happened  long  before 
the  beginnings  of  written  history,  but  which  are  none 
the  less  certain  because  we  learn  them  from  another 
kind  of  proof.  The  various  wandering  bands  must 
have  parted  off  at  long  intervals,  one  by  one,  and  it 
often  happened  that  a  band  split  off  into  two  or  more 
bands  in  the  course  of  its  wanderings.  And  in  most 
cases  they  did  not  enter  upon  uninhabited  lands,  but 
upon  lands  in  which  men  of  other  races  were  already 
dwelling.  Among  these  they  came  as  conquerors,  and, 
for  the  most  part,  they  drove  them  out  of  the  best 
parts  of  the  land  into  out-of-the-way  corners.  First 
of  all,  there  are  the  two  great  divisions  of  the  Eastern 
and  the  Western,  the  Asiatic  and  the  European,  Aryans, 
divisions  which  became  altogether  cut  off  from  one" 
another  in  geographical  position  and  in  habits  and 
feelings.  From  the  old  mother-land  one  great  troop 
pressed  to  the  south-east  and  became  the  forefathers 
of  the  Persians  and  Hindoos,  driving  the  older  inhabit- 
ants of  India  down  to  the  south,  into  the  land  which 
is  properly  distinguished  from  Hindostan  by  the  name 
of  the  Deccan.  The  other  great  troop  pressed  west- 
ward, and,  sending  off  one  swarm  after  another,  formed 
the  various  Aryan  nations  of  Europe.  The  order  in 
which  they  came  can  be  known  only  by  their  geo- 


10  ORIGIN  CF  THE  NATIONS.  [CHAP. 

graphical  position.  The  first  waves  of  the  migration 
must  be  those  whom  we  find  furthest  to  the  West 
and  furthest  to  the  South.  But,  in  order  fully  to  take 
in  the  force  of  the  evidence  furnished  by  the  geo- 
graphical position  of  the  various  Aryan  nations  in 
Europe,  it  is  needful  to  say  a  few  words  as  to  the 
geographical  aspect  of  the  continent  of  Europe 
itself. 

9.  Geographical  Shape  of  Europe. — A  glance 
at  the  map  will  show  that,  of  the  three  continents 
which  form  the  Old  World,  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa, 
the  first  two  are  far  more  closely  joined  to  one 
another  than  either  of  them  is  to  the  third.  Africa 
is  a  vast  peninsula — in  our  own  day  indeed  it  may  be 
said  to  have  become  an  island — united  to  the  other 
two  by  a  very  narrow  isthmus.  But  Europe  and  Asia 
form  one  unbroken  mass,  and  in  some  parts  the  boun- 
dary between  the  two  is  purely  artificial.  Some  maps, 
for  instance,  make  the  Don  the  boundary  ;  others  make 
it  the  Volga.  The  most  northern  and  the  most  central 
parts  of  Europe  and  Asia  form  unbroken  geographical 
wholes ;  it  is  only  the  southern  parts  of  the  two  con- 
tinents which  are  quite  cut  off  from  one  another.  And 
it  is  in  these  southern  parts  of  each  that  the  earliest 
recorded  history,  at  all  events  the  earliest  recorded 
history  of  the  Aryan  nations,  begins.  Central  Europe 
and  central  Asia  form  one  great  solid  mass  of 
nearly  unbroken  land.  The  southern  parts  of  each 
continent,  the  lands  below  these  central  masses,  con- 
sist of  a  series  of  peninsulas,  running,  in  the  case  of 
Europe,  into  the  great  inland  sea  called  the  Meditcr- 
ranfan — the  sea  which  brings  all  three  continents 
into  connexion — in  the  case  of  Asia  into  the  Ocean 
itself.  Europe  thus  consists  of  a  great  central  plain, 
cut  off  by  a  nearly  unbroken  mountain  range  from  a 
system  of  islands  and  peninsulas  to  the  south,  which 
is  again  balanced  to  the  north  by  a  sort  of  secondary 
system  of  islands  and  peninsulas,  the  Baltic  being  a 


I  ]  GEOGRAPHY  OF  EUROPE.  IS 

kind  of  northern  Mediterranean.  We  might  almost 
say  the  same  of  Asia,  as  the  mouths  of  the  great  rivers 
which  run  to  the  north  form  several  peninsulas  and 
inland  seas.  But  then  this  part  of  the  world  has 
always  been,  so  to  speak,  frozen  up,  and  it  never  has 
played,  nor  ever  can  play,  any  part  in  history. 

TO.  The  three  great  European  Peninsulas.— 
We  thus  see  that  the  southern  part  of  Europe  consists 
mainly  of  three  great  peninsulas,  those  of  Spain, 
Italy,  and  what  we  may  roughly  call  Greece.  Of 
these,  the  two  eastern  peninsulas  are  purely  Mediter- 
ranean, while  Spain,  from  its  position  at  one  end  of 
the  Old  World,  could  not  help  having  one  side  to 
the  Ocean.  So  Northern  Europe  may  be  said  to 
consist  of  the  two  Scandinavian  peninsulas  and  of 
the  British  Islands,  which  in  a  certain  wav 
balance  Spain,  and  which,  in  a  general  glance,  seem 
peninsular  rather  than  insular.  Now  of  the  three 
southern  peninsulas,  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  the 
eastern  one  has  a  character  of  its  own.  Though  the 
nearest  to  Asia,  it  is  in  its  geographical  character 
the  most  thoroughly  European.  As  Europe  is,  more 
than  either  of  the  other  continents,  a  land  of  islands 
and  peninsulas,  so  Greece  and  the  countries  near  to  it 
are,  more  than  any  other  part  of  Europe,  a.  .and  of 
islands  and  peninsulas.  It  is  therefore  hardly  more 
than  we  should  expect  when  we  find  that  the  recorded 
history  of  Europe  begins  in  this  eastern  peninsula, 
that  is  to  say,  in  Greece ;  that  for  several  ages  the 
history  of  Europe  is  little  more  than  a  history  of  this 
and  the  neighbouring  peninsula,  that  i.c  to  say,  of 
Greece  and  Italy ;  that  the  third  peninsula,  that  of 
Spain,  first  appears  in  European  history  as  a  kind  of 
appendage  to  the  other  two  ;  and  that  the  historical 
importance  of  central  and  northern  Europe  belongs 
to  a  later  time  still. 

ii.  The  Aryan  Settlement  of  Europe.    The 
Greeks    and   Italians. — This  does  not  howevei 


12  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [CHAP, 

necessarily  prove  that  the  two  peninsulas  of  Greece 
arid  Italy  were  positively  the  first  parts  of  Europe 
which  received  Aryan  inhabitants.  There  can  be 
no  doubt,  from  the  close  likeness  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  languages,  that  the  Aryan  inhabitants  of  those 
two  peninsulas  branched  off  from  the  original  stock 
as  one  swarm.  They  afterwards  parted  and  became 
two  nations,  or  rather  two  groups  of  many  nations ;  but 
the  fact  that  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages  agree  so 
closely  together  shows  that  there  was  a  time  when 
the  forefathers  of  the  Greeks  and  the  forefathers  of 
the  Italians  had  already  parted  off  from  the  fore- 
fathers of  the  Hindoos  and  Germans,  but  had  not 
yet  parted  off  from  one  another.  Now  the  time 
when  they  occupied  these  two  peninsulas  must  have 
been  long  before  the  beginnings  of  recorded  history, 
so  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  any  details  of  the  way 
in  which  the  land  was  conquered.  Still  it  is  not 
in  the  least  likely  that  they  found  the  land  uninhabited. 
Tlvey  may  have  found  earlier  inhabitants  who  were 
not  Aryans,- as  the  Aryans  certainly  did  in  many  other 
parts  of  Europe,  or  they  may  even  have  found  Aryan 
settlers  earlier  than  themselves.  The  exact  relations  be- 
tween the  Greeks  and  the  other  ancient  nations  of  south- 
eastern Europe  are  in  some  respects  very  hard  to 
make  out,  and  the  little  that  can  be  said  about  it  in 
such  a  sketch  as  this  will  be  better  said  when  we  come 
to  speak  of  Greece  somewhat  more  particularly. 
But  of  the  people  whom  the  Italians  found  in  the 
middle  peninsula  of  the  three,  we  must  say  something 
more. 

12.  The  Italians  and  Celts. — In  the  case  of 
the  Italians,  we  know  a  little  more  of  the  nations, 
both  Aryan  and  otherwise,  whom  they  seem  to  have 
found  in  their  peninsul,  In  some  parts  they  most 
likely  found  a  non-Aryan  people,  and  it  can  hardly 
be  doubted  that,  if  they  entered  their  peninsula  by 
land  from  the  head  of  the  Hadriatic  Gulf,  they 


<.]  THE  CELTS.  13 

already  found  a  Celtic  people  in  the  northern  part  of  it 
The  Celts  were  the  first  wave  of  the  Aryan  migra- 
tion in  central  Europe,  and  we  therefore  find  them 
further  to  the  west  than  any  other  Aryan  people. 
In  historical  times  we  find  them  in  Gauf,  in  the 
British  Islands,  in  parts  of  Spain  and  Italy,  and  in  the 
border  lands  of  Italy  and  Germany  south  of  the  Danube. 
Now  it  is  not  likely  that  they  found  any  part  of  these 
lands  quite  uninhabited  ;  it  is  far  more  likely  that  they 
found  aii  earlier  people  dwelling  in  them,  whom  they 
slew  or  drove  out.  In  Spain  indeed  and  in  Southern 
Gaul  we  know  that  they  found  an  earlier  people 
dwelling,  because,  as  has  been  already  said,  there  is 
a  small  district  on  each  side  of  the  Pyrenees  where 
a  non-Aryan  tongue  is-  still  spoken.  The  people  who 
speak  it,  the  Basques,  are,  we  cannot  doubt,  remnants 
of  the  earlier  people  who  inhabited  Spain  and  Southern 
Gaul,  and  most  likely  other  parts  of  Western  Europe, 
before  either  the  Celts  or  Italians  came.  And  we  can 
hardly  doubt  that  the  Italians  found  people  of  this 
race,  perhaps  in  their  peninsula  itself,  and  at  any  rate 
on  its  borders.  But  the  Italians  never  settled  far  to 
the  west  of  their  own  peninsula  ;  the  first  Aryans  who 
pushed  their  way  into  Western  Europe  as  far  as  the 
Ocean  were  the  Celts.  But  we  must  now  mark  that,  as 
the  Aryans  pressed  upon  and  slew  or  drove  out  the 
earlier  people  whom  they  found  in  the  lands  into  which 
they  came,  so  presently  other  Aryan  swarms  came 
pressing  upon  the  first  Aryans,  and  dispossessed  or 
drove  them  out  in  like  manner.  Thus,  in  Western 
Europe,  while  the  earlier  inhabitants  have  been  driven 
up  by  the  Celts  into  very  small  corners  indeed,  the 
Celts  themselves  were  in  the  end  also  driven  up  into 
corners,  though  not  into  quite  such  small  corners. 
Thus,  out  of  all  the  land£  where  the  Celts  once 
dwelled,  their  languages,  or  which  the  British  01 
Welsh,  the  Breton,  and  the  Irish  tongues  still  sur- 
vive, are  now  spoken  onl^.  in  certain  parts  of  Gaul, 


14  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NA  TICNS.  [CHAF 

Britain,  and  Ireland.  This  change  is  partly  because 
as  we  shall  see  as  we  go  on,  a  large  part  of  the  Celts 
were  conquered  by  the  Romans,  and  learned  to  speak 
their  language.  But  it  is  also  partly  because  another 
wave  of  Aryan  settlement  presently  came  into  Western 
Europe,  which  pressed  upon  the  Celts  from  the  east, 
and  drove  them  out  of  a  great  part  of  the  land,  just 
as  they  had  driven  the  earlier  people.  And  so  in 
later  times,  other  branches  of  the  Aryan  family.have 
pressed  backwards  and  forwards,  and  have  conquered 
and  displaced  other  Aryan  nations,  just  as  much  as 
those  that  were  not  Aryan.  But  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  Celts  were  the  first  Aryans  who  made 
their  way  into  the  western  lands  of  Spain,  Gaul,  and 
Britain, 

13.  The  Teutons  or  Dutch. — The  second  Aryan 
swarm  in  Western  Europe,  that  which  came  after 
the  Celts,  is  the  one  with  whose  history  we  are  more 
concerned  than  with  that  of  any  other ;  for  it  is  the 
branch  of  the  Aryan  family  to  which  we  ourselves 
belong.  These  are  the  Teutons,  the  forefathers  of  the 
Germans  and  the  English,  and  of  the  Danes,  Swedes, 
and  Norwegians  in  Northern  Europe.  The  Teutons 
do  not  appear  in  history  till  a  much  later  time  than  the 
Celts,  and  then  we  find  them  lying  immediately  to  the 
east  of  the  Celts,  chiefly  in  the  land  which  is  now  called 
Germany.  From  this  they  spread  themselves  into 
many  of  the  countries  of  Europe  ;  but  in  most  cases 
they  got  lost  among  the  earlier  inhabitants,  and  learned, 
like  them,  tD  speak  the  language  of  the  Romans. 
The  chief  parts  of  Europe  where  Teutonic  languages 
are  now  spoken  are  Germany,  England,  and  Scan- 
dinavia. In  Scandinavia  we  cannot  doubt  that  the 
present  Teutonic  inhabitants  were  the  first  Aryan 
settlers ;  for  they  found  a  Turanian  people  there, 
some  of  whom  still  remain,  by  the  name  of  Laps  and 
Fins,  in  the  extreme  north  of  Sweden  and  Norway  iiui 
OD  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Baltic.  But  in  most  place* 


I.]  THE  TEUTONS  AND  SLAVES.  13 

the  Teutons,  as  the  second  wave,  came  into  lands 
where  other  Aryan  settlers  had  been  before  them. 
Sometimes  they  may  have  simply  come  in  the  wake 
of  the  Celts  as  they  were  pressing  westward ;  but, 
sometimes  they  found  the  Celts  in  the  land  and  drove 
them  out,  as  was  specially  the  case  in  Britain.  Of 
the  first  coming  of  the  Teutons  into  Europe  we 
can  say  nothing  from  written  history,  any  more  than 
of  the  first  coming  of  the  Celts.  But  many  of  their 
chief  settlements,  and  among  them  the  settle- 
ment in  Britain,  happened  so  late  that  we  know  a 
good  deal  about  them.  The  true  name  of  the  Teutons 
is  Theodisc  or  Dutch,  from  Theod,  people,  as  one  might 
say,  "the  people,"  as  opposed  to  foreigners.  The 
Germans  still  call  themselves  Deutschen  in  their  own 
language,  and  not  so  long  ago  the  word  Dutch  was 
still  used  in  English  in  a  sense  at  least  as  wide  as  this, 
and  did  not  mean  only  the  people  to  whom  alone  we 
now  commonly  give  the  name. 

14.  The  Slaves  and  Lithuanians. — The  third 
wave  of  Aryan  settlement  in  the  central  parts  of  Europe 
consisted  of  the  Slaves  and  Lithuanians,  whom  for  our 
purpose  we  may  put  together,  It  must  not  be  thought 
that  the  word  Slave,  as  the  name  of  a  people,  comes 
from  slave  in  its  common  sense  of  bondman.  It  is  just 
the  other  way,  for  the  word  slave  got  the  sense  of 
bondman  because  of  the  great  number  of  bondmen  of 
Slavonic  birth  who  were  at  one  time  spread  over  Europe. 
This  third  swarm  forms  the  Aryan  inhabitants  of  the 
central  part  of  Eastern  Europe,  of  Old  Prussia  and 
Lithuania,  of  Russia,  Poland,  Bohemia,,  of  parts  of 
Hungary,  and  of  a  large  part  of  the  countries  which 
are  subject  to  the  Turks.  They  thus  lie  to  the  east 
of  the  Teutons,  who  in  after-times  turned  about  and 
greatly  enlarged  their  borders  at  their  cost.  And  it 
is  also  among  thes-e  Slavonic  people  that  we  find  the 
only  instances  in  Europe  of  a  Turanian  people  turning 
about  and  establishing  themselves  at  the  cost  of  Aryan 


10  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NA  T1ONS.  [CHAP. 

nations.  One  of  these  is  the  Hungarians  or  Magyar^ 
a  people  allied  to  the  Fins,  who  pressed  in  as 
conquerors,  and  founded  a  kingdom  which  still  lasts, 
and  where  the  old  Turanian  tongue  is  still  spoken. 
The  other  case  is  that  of  the  Ottoman  Turks,  who 
still  bear  rule  over  many  of  the  Greeks,  Slaves,  and 
other  Aryan  and  Christian  people  in  south-eastern 
Europe.  And  as  we  go  on,  we  shall  find  other  cases 
in  eastern  Europe  of  Turanian  nations  invading  or 
ruling  over  Aryans ;  but  it  is  only  the  Hungarians 
and  the  Ottoman  Turks  who  founded  kingdoms 
which  have  lasted  to  our  own  time.  The  last  Aryan 
people  to  be  mentioned  in  this  survey  of  Europe 
are  the  Lithuanians,  whose  language  and  his- 
tory are  closely  connected  with  those  of  the  Slaves. 
They  are  the  smallest,  as  the  Slaves  are  the  largest, 
of  the  great  divisions  of  the  Aryan  settlers  in  Europe. 
But  they  are  of  great  importance,  because  their  lan- 
guage is  in  some  sort  the  very  oldest  in  Europe  ;  that 
is,  it  is  the  one  which  has  undergone  the  least  change 
from  the  common  Aryan  tongue  from  which  all  set 
out.  But  it  is  only  in  a  very  small  part  of  Europe, 
on  the  south-east  corner  of  the  Baltic,  that  the 
Lithuanian  tongue  is  still  spoken. 

15.  Rome  the  Centre  of  European  History. — 
Such  is  a  very  short  sketch  of  the  settlement  of  the 
chief  Aryan  nations  in  Europe.  The  history  of  these 
nations  forms  European  history.  But,  even  among 
these  Aiyan  nations  in  Europe,  some  have  played  a 
much  more  important  part  than  others.  Thus  the 
Lithuanians  and  Slaves  have  always  lagged  behind 
the  other  nations.  Nor  have  the  Celts  played  any 
great  part  in  history,  except  when  they  have  come 
under  either  Roman  or  Teutonic  influences.  The 
nations  which  have  stood  out  foremost  among  aL1 
have  been  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the  Teutons. 
And  among  these  it  is  the  Romans  who  form  the  centre 
of  the  whole  story.  Rome  alone  founded  a  universal 


I.]  ROME  THE  COMMON  CENTRE.  17 

Empire  in  which  all  earlier  history  loses  itself,  and 
out  of  which  all  later  history  grew.  That  Empire, 
at  the  time  of  its  greatest  extent,  took  in  the  whole 
of  what  was  then  the  civilized  world,  that  is  to  say, 
the  countries  round  about  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  alike 
in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  The  Roman  Empire 
was  formed  by  gradually  bringing  under  its  dominion 
all  the  countries  within  ttyose  bounds  which  had 
already  begun  to  have  any  history,  those  which  we 
may  call  the  states  of  the  Old  World.  And  /it  was 
out  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  great  dominion  of 
Rome  that  what  we  may  call  the  states  of  the  New 
Wurld,  the  kingdoms  and  nations  of  modern  Europe, 
gradually  took  their  rise.  Thus  through  the  whole  of 
our  sketch  we  must  be  ever  thinking  of  Rome,  ever 
looking  to  Rome,  sometimes  looking  forward  to  it, 
sometimes  looking  back  to  it,  but  always  having  Rome 
in  our  mind  as  the  centre  of  the  whole  story.  In  the 
former  part  of  oiir  sketch  we  have  to  deal  with  king- 
doms and  nations  which  are  one  day  to  come  under 
the  power  of  Rome.  In  the  latter  part  of  our  sketch 
we  have  to  deal  with  kingdoms  and  nations,  many 
of  which  actually  formed  part  of  the  Roman  dominion, 
and  all  of  which  have  been  brought,  more  or  less 
fully,  under  Roman  influences.^  In  this  way  Rome 
will  never  pass  out  of  our  sight. 

16.  Division  of  Periods. — We  may  thus  say 
that  the  history  of  the  civilized  part  of  the  world  falls 
into  three  parts.  There  is  the  history  of  the  states 
which  were  in  being  before  the  Roman  dominion 
began,  and  out  of  whose  union  the  Roman  dominion 
was  formed.  Then  there  is  the  history  of  the  Roman 
dominion  itself.  Lastly,  there  is  the  history  of  the 
states  which  arose  out  of  the  breaking  up  of  the 
Roman  dominion.  But  we  shall  have  much  more  to 
say  about  th  e  states  which  grew  up  out  of  the  breaking 
up  of  the  Roman  dominion  than  about  the  states 
which  were  brought  together  to  form  it.  There  are 


18  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [CHAP. 

two  reasons  for  this.  History  which  we  can  fully 
trust,  history  which  was  written  down  at  or  soon  after 
the  time  when  things  happened,  begins  only  a  few 
hundred  years  before  the  Roman  power  came  to  its 
full  growth.  But  a  far  longer  time  has  passed  since 
the  days  when  the  Roman  dominion  began  to  break 
in  pieces.  Thus  the  portion  of  trustworthy  history 
which  comes  after  the  days  of  the  Roman  dominion 
is  much  longer  than  the  portion  which  comes  before 
it.  And  in  these  later  times  we  have  to  deal  with 
many  great  and  famous  states,  among  which  are  those 
which  have  grown  into  the  chief  powers  of  Europe  in 
our  own  day.  But  in  the  earlier  time,  the  time  before 
the  Roman  dominion,  we  know  very  little  of  most  of 
the  European  nations  :  the  history  of  most  of  them 
may  be  said  to  begin  at  the  time  when  the  Romans 
began  to  conquer  them.  Of  most  of  them  therefore 
the  little  that  we  have  to  say  will  be  best  said  when 
we  come  to  speak  of  the  Roman  conquests.  But 
there  is  one  European  country  which  has  a  history 
of  its  own  before  its  conquest  by  the  Romans,  and 
a  history  longer  and  nobler  than  that  of  the  Romans 
themselves.  This  country  is  Greece.  Of  Greece  then, 
and  of  Greece  alone,  we  must  give  a  separate  sketch 
in  the  next  chapter,  before  we  begin  to  trace  the  steps 
by  which  Rome  won  her  universal  dominion. 


CHAPTER   II. 

GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES. 

Connexion  between  the  Greeks  and  Italians  (i) — their  rela- 
tion to  other  neighbouring  nations  (i) — their  early 
advances  over  their  kindred  (i) — meaning  of  the  name 
Hellas  (-^—geographical  character  of  the  country  (2) — 
number  of  islands  and  peninsulas  (2) — consequent 
number  of  small  states  (2) — early  political  superiority 
of  Greece  (3) — relations  between  the  Greeks  and  Phaeni' 
(4) — extent  of  the  Phoenician  Colonies  (4)—  extern 


IL]  THE  GREEKS.  *,» 

of  the  Greek  Colonies  (5) — distinction  between  Greek* 
and  Barbarians  (6) — relations  of  the  Greeks  to  the 
kindred  nations  (6) — relations  among  the  cities  of  Greece 
(7) — relations  of  the  colonies  to  the  mother  cities  (7) — 
early  constitutions  of  tJte  Greek  cities  ;  likeness  of  those 
to  other  Aryan  nations  (8) — Kingship,  Aristocracy ; 
Democracy  (8) — Tyranny '(9) — Greek  religion  andmyth- 
ology(\o) — the  Homeric  poems  (i  i) — the  Dorian  migra- 
tion (\\) — the  Messenian  wars  (i  i) — reforms  of  So  ton 
at  Athens  (n) — growth  of  the  Persians  (12) — thei* 
conquests  of  Lydia  and  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  (12)— 
first  Persian  invasion  of  Greece;  Battle  of  Marathon 
(13) — second  Persian  invasion  of  Greece;  Battles  of 
Salamis,  Plataia,  and  My  kale  ( 1 3) — greatness  of  A  thens 
(14) — beginning  of  the  Peloponnesian  War  (15) — 
Athenian  expedition  to  Sicily  (15) — Athens  overcome 
by  Sparta  (15) — the  dominion  of  Sparta  (16) — the  Peace 
of  Antalkidas  (16) — rise  of  Thebes  (17) — rise  of  Mace- 
donia under  Philip;  his  supremacy  in  Greece  (18) — 
conquests  of  Alexander  the  Great  (19)— effects  of  his 
conquests;  spread  of  Greek  civilization  in  Asia  (20) 
—  the  Successors  of  Alexander  in  Asia  and  Egypt  (21) 
— the  later  Kings  of  Macedonia  and  Epeiros  (22) — 
character  of  the  later  history  of  Greece  (23) — prevalence 
of  Federal  Governments  in  later  Greece :  Leagues  of 
A  chain,  ^Etolia,  and  elsewhere  (24) — greatness  of 
Sparta  under  Kleomenes  (25) — interference  of  Rome 
in  Greek  affairs  (25) — Summary  (26). 

i.  The  Greek  People. — Whether  the  Greeks 
were  the  first  Aryan  people  to  settle  in  Europe  or  in 
Eastern  Europe  we  cannot  tell  for  certain.  But  we 
do  know  for  certain  that  they  were  the  first  Aryan 
nation  whose  deeds  were  recorded  in  written  history ; 
and  there  never  was  any  nation  whose  deeds  were 
more  worthy  to  be  recorded.  For  no  nation  ever  did 
such  great  things,  none  ever  made  such  great  advances 
in  every  way  so  wholly  by  its  own  power  and  with  so 
little  help  from  any  other  people.  Yet  we  must  not 
look  on  the  Greeks  as  a  nation  quite  apart  by  them- 
selves. We  have  already  seen  that  the  Greek  people 


ao       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAR 

were  part  of  a  great  Aryan  settlement  which  occupied 
both  the  two  eastern  peninsulas,  and  that  the  fore- 
fathers of  the  Greeks  and  the  forefathers  of '  the 
Italians  must  have  kept  together  for  a  good  while  after 
they  had  parted  company  from  the  other  branches  of 
the  Aryan  family.  And  there  is  some  reason  to  think 
that  some  of  the  other  nations  bordering  near  upon 
Greece,  both  in  the  eastern  peninsula  and  in  the  western 
coast  of  Asia,  in  Illyria,  Thrace,  Phrygta,  and  Lydia, 
were  not  only  Aryan,  but  were  actually  part  of  the  same 
swarm  as  the  Greeks  and  Italians.  However  this  may 
be,  i.t  seems  quite  certain  that  most  of  the  nations  lying 
near  Greece,  as  those  in  £j>eirosand  Macedonia,  which 
lie  to  the  north,  those  in  Sicily  and  Southern  Italy,  and 
in  some  parts  of  the  opposite  coasts  of  Asia,  were  very 
closely  akin  to  the  Greeks,  and  spoke  languages  which 
came  much  nearer  to  Greek  even  than  the  languages 
of  the  rest  of  Italy.  The  people  of  all  these  countries 
seem  to  have  had  a  power  beyond  all  other  people  of 
adopting  the  Greek  language  and  manners,  and,  so 
to  speak,  of  making  themselves  Greeks.  The  Greeks 
seem,  in  fact,  to  have  been  one  among  several  kindred 
nations  which  shot  in  advance  of  its  kinsfolk,  and 
which  was  therefore  able  in  the  end  to  become  a 
teacher  to  the  others.  And  one  thing  which  helped 
the  Greeks  in  thus  putting  themselves  in  advance  of 
all  their  kinsfolk  and  neighbours  was  the  nature  of  the 
land  in  which  they  settled. 

2.  Geographical  Character  of  Greece. — Any- 
one who  turns  to  the  map  will  see  that  the  country 
which  we  call  Greece,  but  which  its  own  people  have 
always  called  Hellas,  is  the  southern  part  of  the  great 
eastern  peninsula  of  Europe.  But  we  must  remember 
that,  in  the  way  of  speaking  of  the  Greeks  themselves, 
the  name  Hellas  did  not  mean  merely  the  country 
which  we  now  call  Greece,  but  any  country  where 
Hellenes  or  Greeks  lived.  Thus  there  might  be  patches, 
so  to  speak,  of  Hellas  anywhere  ;  and  there  were  sucb 


n.]  GEOGRAPHY  OF  GREECE.  21 

patches  of  Hellas  round  a  great  part  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea,  wherever  Greek  settlers  had  planted 
colonies.  But  the  first  aad  truest  Hellas,  the  mother- 
land of  all  Hellenes,  was  the  land  which  we  call 
Greece,  with  the  islands  -round  about  it.  There  alone 
the  whole  land  was  Greek,  and  none  but  Hellenes 
lived  in  it.  It  is,  above  all  the  rest  of  Europe,  a  land 
of  islands  and  peninsulas ;  and  that  was,  no  doubt, 
one  main  reason  why  it  was  the  first  part  of  Europe 
to  stand  forth  as  great  and  free  in  the  eyes  of  the 
whole  world.  For  in  early  times  the  sea-coast  is 
always  the  part  of  a  land  which  is  first  civilized, 
because  it  is  the  part  which  can  most  easily  have 
trade  and  other  dealings  with  other  parts  of  the  world. 
Thus,  as  Greece  was  the  first  part  of  Europe  to  be- 
come civilized,  so  the  coasts  and  islands  of  Greece 
were  both  sooner  and  more  highly  civilized  than 
the  inland  parts.  Those  inland  parts  are  almost 
everywhere  full  of  mountains  and  valleys,  so  that  the 
different  parts  of  the  land,  both  on  the  sea-coast  and 
in  the  inland  parts,  were  very  much  cut  Off  from  one 
another.  Each  valley  or  island  or  little  peninsula  had 
its  own  town,  with  its  own  little  territory,  forming, 
whenever  it  could,  a  separate  government  independent 
of  all  others,  and  with  the  right  of  making  war  and 
peace,  just  as  if  it  had  been  a  great  kingdom. 

3.  Character  of  Grecian  History. — The  geo- 
graphical nature  of  the  land  in  this  way  settled  the 
history  of  the  Greek  people.  It  is  only  in  much  later 
times  that  a  great  kingdom  or  commonwealth  can 
come  to  have  the  same  political  and  intellectual  life  as 
a  small  state  consisting  of  one  city.  In  an  early  state 
of  things  the  single  city  is  always  in  advance  of  the 
great  kingdom,  not  always  in  wealth  or  in  mere  bodily 
comforts,  but  always  in  political  freedom  and  in  real 
sharpness  of  wit.  Thus  the  Greeks,  with  their  many 
small  states,  were  the  first  people  from  whom  we 
can  learn  any  lessons  in  the  art  of  politics,  the 


«2      GREECf.  AXD  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAP 

art  of  ruling  and  persuading  men  according  to  law, 
The  little  commonwealths  of  Greece  were  the  first 
states  at  once  fr2e  and  civilized  which  the  world  ever 
saw.  They  were  the  first  states  which  gave  birth  to 
great  statesmen,  orators,  and  generals  who  did  great 
deeds,  and  to  great  historians  who  set  down  those 
great  deeds  in  writing.  It  was  in  the  Greek  common- 
wealths, in  short,  that  the  political  and  intellectual 
life  of  the  world  began.  But,  for  the  very  reason  that 
trreir  freedom  came  so  early,  they  were  not  able  to 
keep  it  so  long  as  states  in  later  times  which  have 
been  equally  free  and  of  greater  extent. 

4.  The  Greeks  and  the  Phoenicians. — 
Whether  the  Greeks  found  any  earlier  inhabitants 
in  the  land  which  they  made  their  own  is  a  point  on 
which  we  cannot  be  quite  certain,  but  it  is  more 
likely  that  they  did  than  that  they  did  not.  But  it  is 
certain  that,  when  they  began  to  spread  themselves 
from  the  mainland  into  the  islands,  they  found  in  the 
islands  powerful  rivals  already  settled.  These  were 
the  Phoenicians,  as  the  Greeks  called  them,  who  were 
a  Semitic  people,  and  who  played  a  great  part  in  both 
Grecian  and  Roman  history.  Their  real  name  among 
themselves  was  Canaanites,  and  they  dwelled  on  the 
coast  of  Palestine,  at  the  east  end  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  especially  in  the  great  cities  of  Sidon,  Tyre,  and 
Arados  or  Arvad.  They  were  a  more  really  civilized 
people,  and  made  a  nearer  approach  to  free  govern- 
ment, than  any  other  people  who  were  not  Aryans. 
They  were  especially  given  to  trade  and  to  everything 
which  had  to  do  with  a  seafaring  life.  They  had  thus 
begun  to  spread  their  trade,  and  to  found  colonies, 
over  a  large  part  of  the  Mediterranean  coast,  before 
the  Greeks  became  of  any  note  in  the  world.  They 
had  even  made  their  way  beyond  what  the  Greeks 
called  the  Pillars  of  Herakles,  that  is,  beyond  the 
Strait  of  Gibraltar,  and  had  sailed  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea  into  the  Ocean.  They  had  there  founded 


«.]  GREEKS  AND  PIKENICIANS.  23 

the  city  of  Gades,  which  still  keeps  its  name  as  Cadix* 
and  they  founded  other  colonies,  both  in  Spain  and 
on  the  north-west  coast  of  Africa,  of  which  the  most 
famous  was  Carthage.  They  had  also  settlements  in 
the  islands  of  the  ^Egsean  Sea,  as  well  as  in  the  greater 
islands  of  Cyprus  and  Sicily ;  and  it  was  in  these 
islands  that  they  met  the  Greeks  as  enemies.  But, 
even  before  the  Greeks  had  begun  to  send  out  colonies, 
they  had  a  good  deal  of  trade  with  the  Phoenicians. 
And,  as  the  Phoenicians  were  the  more  early  civilized 
of  the  two  nations,  the  Greeks  seem  to  have  learned 
several  things  of  them,  and  above  all,  the  alphabet. 
The  Greeks  learned  the  letters  which  the  Phoenicians 
used  to  write  their  own  language,  which  was  much  the 
same  as  the  Hebrew,  and  they  adapted  them,  as  well 
as  they  could,  to  the  Greek  language.  And  from  the 
Greeks  the  alphabet  gradually  made  its  way  to  the 
Italians,  and  from  them  to  the  other  nations  of  Europe, 
with  such  changes  as  each  nation  found  needful  for  its 
own  tongue.  The  Phoenicians  did  much  in  this  way 
towards  helping  on  the  civilization  of  the  Greeks :  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  Phoenicians,  or 
any  other  people  of  Asia  or  Africa,  founded  any  settle- 
ments in  Greece  itself  after  the  Hellenes  had  once 
made  the  land  their  own. 

5.  Foundation  of  the  Greek  Colonies. — From 
the  mainland  of  Greece  the  Greek  people  gradually 
spread  themselves  over  most  of  the  neighbouring  islands, 
and  over  a  large  part  of  the  Mediterranean  coast,  especi- 
ally on  the  shores  nearest  to  their  own  land.  In  fact, 
we  may  say  that  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Greeks  between 
them  planted  colonies  round  the  whole  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean,  save  in  two  parts  only.  One  cf  these 
was  Egypt  on  the  south  ;  the  other  was  Central  and 
Northern  Italy,  where  the  native  inhabitants  were  far 
too  strong  and  brave  to  allow  strangers  to  settle  among 
them.  The  Greeks  thus  spread  themselves  over  all 
the  islands  of  the  yEgsean  Sea,  over  the  coasts  of 


24       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHA* 

Macedonia  and  Thrace  to  the  north  and  of  Asia  Minor 
to  the  east,  as  wel'  as  in  the  islands  to  the  west  ot 
Greece,  Korkyra  and  the  others  which  are  known  now 
as  the  Ionian  Islands.  A  great  part  of  this  region  be- 
rame  fully  as  Greek  as  Greece  itself,  only  even  here,  on 
some  parts  of  the  coast,  the  Greek  possessions  were  not 
quite  unbroken,  but  were  simply  a  city  here  and  there. 
And  nowhere,  except  in  Greece  itself,  did  the  Greek 
colonists  get  very  far  from  the  sea.  Other  colonies  were 
gradually  planted  in  Cyprus,  in  Sicily  and  Southern 
Italy,  and  on  the  coast  of  Illyria  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Hadriatic.  And  there  was  one  part  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean coast  which  was  occupied  by  Greek  colonies 
where  we  should  rather  have  looked  for  Phoenicians ; 
that  is,  in  the  lands'  west  of  Egypt,  where  several 
Greek  cities  arose,  the  chief  of  which  was  Kyrene. 
These  were  the  only  Greek  settlements  on  the  south 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean.  But  some  Greek  colonies 
were  planted  as  far  east  as  the  shores  of  the  Euxine, 
and  others  as  far  west  as  the  shores  of  Gaul  and 
Northern  Spain.  One  Greek  colony  in  these  parts 
which  should  be  specially  remembered  was  Massalia, 
now  Marseille.  This  was  the  only  great  Greek  city  in 
the  western  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  it  was  the 
head  of  several  smaller  settlements  on  the  coasts  of 
Gaul  and  Spain.  In  the  southern  part  of  Spain,  and 
in  the  greater  part  of  northern  Africa,  the  Greeks 
could  not  settle,  because  there  the  Phoenicians  had 
settled  before  them.  And  no  Greek  sailors  were  ever 
bold  enough  to  pass  the  Pillars  of  Herakles  and  to 
plant  colonies  on  the  shores  of  the  Ocean. 

6.  Greeks  and  Barbarians. — We  have  thus  seen 
the  extent  of  country  over  which  the  Greek  people 
spread  themselves.  There  was  their  own  old  country 
and  the  islands  nearest  to  it,  where  they  alone  occupied 
*,he  whole  land ;  and  there  were  also  the  more  distant 
colonies,  where  Greek  cities  were  planted  here  and 
there,  on  the  coasts  of  lands  which  were  occupier!  by 


fl.l  GREEKS  AND  BARBARIANS.  •    25 

men  of  other  nations,  or,  as  the  Greeks  called  them, 
Barbarians.  This  word  Barbarians,  in  its  first  use 
among  the  Greeks,  simply  meant  that  the  people  so 
called  were  people  whose  language  the  Greeks  did 
not  understand.  They  called  them  Barbarians,  even 
though  their  blood  and  speech  were  nearly  akin  to 
their  own,  if  only  the  difference  was  so  great  that 
their  speech  was  not  understood.  It  followed  that  in 
most  parts  of  the  world  it  was  easy  to  tell  who  were 
Greeks  and  who  were  Barbarians,  but  that  along  the 
northern  frontier  of  Greece  the  line  was  less  strongly 
drawn  than  elsewhere.  Along  that  border  the  ruder 
tribes  of  the  Greek  nation,  the  ALtolians,  Akarnanians, 
and  others,  lived  alongside  of  other  tribes  who  were 
not  Greek,  but  who  seem  to  have  been  closely  allied 
to  the  Greeks.  If  you  turn  to  the  map,  you  will  see 
along  this  northern  border  the  lands  of  Macedonia, 
Epeiros,  Thessaly.  Macedonia  was  ruled  by  Greek 
Kings,  but  it  was  never  reckoned  to  be  part  of  Greece 
till  quite  late  times.  Thessaly,  on  the  other  hand,  way 
always  reckoned  as  part  of  Greece,  though  the  people 
who  gave  it  its  name  seem  not  to  have  been  of  purely 
Greek  origin.  In  Epeiros  again  the  same  tribes  are 
by  some  writers  called  Greeks  and  by  others  Bar- 
barians, and  it  was  only  in  quite  late  times  that 
Epeiros,  like  Macedonia,  was  allowed  to  be  a  Greek 
land.  So,  among  the  colonies,  though  all  were  planted 
among  people  whom  the  Greeks  looked  on  as  Bar- 
barians, yet  it  made  a  great  practical  difference  whether 
the  people  among  whom  they  were  planted  were 
originally  akin  to  the  Greeks  or  not.  Thus,  in  many 
countries,  as  in  the  lands  round  the  ./Egsean  and  also 
in  Italy  and  Sicily,  the  Greeks  settled  among  peonle 
who  were  really  very  near  to  them  in  blood  and  speech, 
and  who  gradually  adopted  the  Greek  language  and 
manners.  In  this  way  both  Sicily  and  Southern  Italy 
became  quite  Greek  countries,  though  in  Sicily  the 
Greeks  had  to  keep  up  a  long  struggle  against  th< 


26       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAP, 

Phoenicians  of  Carthage,  who  also  planted  several 
colonies  in  that  island.  In  Cyprus  also  the  same 
struggle  went  or.,  and  the  island  became  partly  Greek 
and  partly  Phoenician.  But  in  those  of  the  ^Egaean 
islands  where  the  Phoenicians  hud  settled,  the  Greeks 
drove  them  out  altogether.  For  there  was  no  chance 
of  the  Phoenicians  taking  to  Greek  ways  as  the  Italians 
and  Sicilians  did. 

7.  The  Greek  Commonwealths. — Greece  it- 
self, the  land  to  the  south  of  the  doubtful  lands  like 
Macedonia  and  Epeiros,  was  the  only  land  which  was 
wholly  and  purely  Greek,  where  there  was  no  doubt  as 
to  the  whole  people  being  Greek,  and  where  we  find 
the  oldest  and  most  famous  cities  of  the  Greek  name. 
Such,  in  the  great  peninsula  called  Peloponnesos,  were 
Sparta  and  Argos,  and,  in  early  times,  Mykene  ;  Corinth 
too  on  the  Isthmus,  and  beyond  the  Isthmus,  Megara, 
Athens,  Thebes,  and,  in  very  early  times,  Orchomenos. 
Each  Greek  city,  whenever  it  was  strong  enough, 
formed  an  independent  state  with  its  own  little  terri- 
tory ;  but  it  often  happened  that  a  stronger  city 
brought  a  weaker  one  more  or  less  under  its  power. 
And  in  some  parts  of  Greece  several  towns  joined 
together  in  Leagues,  each  town  managing  its  own  affairs 
for  itself,  but  the  whole  making  war  and  peace  as  a 
single  state.  Thus  in  Peloponnesos,  first  Mykene,  then 
Argos,  and  lastly  Sparta,  held  the  first  place,  each  in 
turn  contriving  to  get  more  or  less  power  over  a  greater 
or  smaller  number  of  other  cities.  And  it  would 
seem  that  in  very  early  times  the  Kings  of  Mykene 
had  a  certain  power  over  all  Peloponnesos  and  many 
of  the  islands.  Still,  even  when  a  Greek  city  came 
more  or  less  under  the  power  of  a  stronger  city,  it  did 
not  wholly  lose  the  character  of  a  separate  common- 
wealth. And  when  the  cities  of  Old  Greece  began  to 
send  out  colonies,  those  colonies  became  separate 
commonwealths  also.  Each  colony  came  forth  from 
some  city  in  the  mother  country,  and  it  often  hap- 


n.]  FORMS  OF  GOVERNMENT.  2? 

pened  that  a  colony  sent  forth  colonies  of  its  own  in 
turn.  Each  colony  became  an  independent  state,  owing 
a  certain  respect  to  the  mother  city,  but  not  being 
subject  to  it.  And  as  the  colonies  were  commonly 
planted  where  there  was  a  rich  country  or  a  position 
good  for  trade,  many  of  them  became  very  flourishing 
and  powerful.  In  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries 
before  Christ,  many  of  the  colonial  cities,  as  Miletos  in 
Asia,  Sybaris  in  Italy,  and  Syracuse  in  Sicily,  were 
among  the  most  flourishing  of  all  Greek  cities,  greater 
than  most  of  the  cities  in  Greece  itself.  But  the 
colonies  were  for  the  most  part  not  so  well  able  to 
keep  their  freedom  as  the  cities  in  Greece  were. 

8.  Forms  of  Government. — In  the  earliest  days 
of  Greece  we  find  much  the  same  form  of  government 
in  the  small  Greek  states 'which  we  find  among  all  the 
Aryan  nations  of  whose  early  condition  we  have  any 
account.  But  both  the  Greeks  and  the  Italians  were 
unlike  the  Teutons  and  some  of  the  other  Aryan 
nations  in  one  thing.  That  is  because  they  were 
gathered  together  in  cities  from  the  very  beginning, 
while  some  of  the  other  nations  were  collections,  not 
so  much  of  cities  as  of  tribes.  Still  the  early  form  of 
government  was  much  the  same  in  both  cases.  Each 
tribe  or  city  had  its  own  King  or  chief,  whose  office 
was  mostly  confined  to  one  family,  for  the  Kings  were 
commonly  held  to  be  of  the  blood  of  the  Gods.  The 
King  was  the  chief  leader  both  in  peace  and  war ;  but 
he  could  not  do  everything  according  to  his  own 
pleasure.  For  there  was  always  a  Council  of  elders  or 
chief  men,  and  also  an  Assembly  of  the  whole  people, 
or  at  least  of  all  those  who  had  the  full  rights  of 
citizens.  This  kind  of  kingship  lasted  in  Greece 
through  the  whole  of  the  earliest  times,  through  what 
are  called  the  Heroic  Ages,  and  in  the  neighbouring 
lands  of  Epeiros  and  Macedonia  a  kingship  of  much 
the  same  kind  lasted  on  through  nearly  the  whole 
of  their  history.  But  in  Greece  itself  the  kinglj 


28       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAP. 

power  was  gradually  abolished  in  most  of  the  cities, 
and  they  became  commonwealths.  At  first  these  com- 
monwealths were  aristocracies;  that  is  to  say,  only 
men  of  certain  families  were  allowed  to  fill  public 
offices  and  to  take  part  in  the  assemblies  by  which  the 
city  was  governed.  These  privileged  families  were  in 
most  cases  the  descendants  of  the  oldest  inhabitants 
of  the  city,  who  o]id  not  choose  to  admit  new-comers 
to  the  same  full  rights  as  themselves.  Some  of  the 
Greek  cities  remained  aristocracies  till  very  late  times ; 
but  others  soon  became  democracies;  that  is  to  say,  all 
citizens  were  allowed  to  hold  offices  and  to  attend 
the  assemblies.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
everyone  who  lived  in  a  Greek  city  was  not  therefore 
a  citizen.  For  in  most  parts  of  Greece  there  were 
many  slaves ;  and,  if  a  man  from  one  city  went  to  live 
in  another,  even  though  the  city  in  which  he  went  to 
live  was  a  democracy,  neither  he  nor  his  children 
were  made  citizens  as  a  matter  of  course.  In  a  few 
cities  the  name  King,  in  Greek  Basileus,  remained  in 
use  as  the  title  of  a  magistrate,  though  one  who  no 
longer  held  the  chief  power.  And  in  Sparta  they 
always  went  on  having  Kings  of  the  old  royal  house, 
two  Kings  at  a  time,  who  kept  much  power  both  in 
military  and  in  religious  matters,  though  they  were  no 
longer  the  chief  rulers  of  the  state. 

9.  The  Tyrants. — All  the  three  chief  forms  of 
government,  Monarchy,  Aristocracy,  and  Democracy, 
were  held  by  the  Greeks  to  be  lawful ;  but  there  was 
another  kind  of  power  which  was  always  deemed  un- 
lawful. This  was  Tyranny.  It. sometimes  happened, 
especially  in  cities  where  the  nobles  and  the  people 
were  quarrelling  as  to  whether  the  commonwealth 
should  be  aristocratic  or  democratic,  that  some  man 
would  snatch  away  the  power  from  both  and  make 
himself  Tyrant.  That  is  to  say,  he  would,  perhaps 
with  the  good  will  of  part  of  the  people,  seize  the 
power,  and  much  more  than  the  power,  of  the  old 


ii.  J  THE  GREEK  RELIGION.  2* 

Kings.  The  word  Tyrant  meant  at  first  no  more 
than  that  a  man  had  got  the  power  of  a  King  in  & 
city  where  there  was  no  King  by  law.  It  did  not 
necessarily  mean  that  he  used  his  power  badly  or 
cruelly  ;  though,  as  most  of  the  Tyrants  did  so>  the 
word  came  to  have  a  worse  meaning  than  it  tiad  at 
first.  The  time  when  most  of  the  Tyrants  reigned  in 
Greece  was  in  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  before 
Christ ;  and  the  most  famous  of  them  were  Peisistratos 
and  his  sons,  who  ruled  at  Athens  in  the  sixth  century. 
In  the  colonies,  and  especially  in  Sicily.  Tyrants  went 
on  rising  and  falling  during  almost  the  whole  time  of 
Grecian  history.  But  in  old  Greece  we  do  not  heal 
much  of  them  after  the  sons  of  Peisistratos  were  driven 
out,  about  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  till  quite  the 
later  times  of  Grecian  history,  when  Tyrants  again 
were  common,  but  Tyrants  of  quite  another  kind. 

10.  The  Greek  Religion. — The  religion  of  the 
Greeks  was  one  of  those  forms  of  mythology  which 
have  been  already  spoken  of  as  growing  up  among 
most  of  the  Aryan  nations.     All  the  powers  of  nature 
and  all  the  acts  of  man's  life  were  believed  to  be  under 
the  care  of  different  deities,   of  different  degrees  of 
power.     The  head  of  all  was  Zeus,  the  God  of  the 
sky,  and  he  is  described  as  reigning  on  Mount  Olympoi 
in  Thessaly,  where  the  Gods  were  believed  to  dwell, 
with  his  Council  and  his  general  Assembly,  much  like 
an  early  Greek  King  on  earth.     The  art  and  literature 
of  the  Greeks,  and  indeed  their  government  and  their 
whole  life,  were  closely  bound  up  with  their  religion. 
The  poets  had  from  the  beginning  .many  beautiful 
stories  to  tell  about  the  Gods  and  about  the  Heroes, 
who  were  mostly  said  to  be  the  children  of  the  Gods. 
And,  when  the  Greeks  began  to  practise  the  arts,  it 
was   in  honour   of   the   Gods   and   Heroes  that  the 
noblest  buildings  and  the  most  beautiful  statues  and 
pictures  were  made. 

11.  The  Early  History  of  Greece.— Of  the 


30      GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  CGL  ONIZS.  [CHAP 

earliest  times  of  Grecian  history  we  have  no  accounts 
written  at  the  time ;  we  have  to  make  out  what  we 
can  from  the  traditions  preserved  by  later  writers, 
and  from  the  notices  of  the  poets.  For  composition 
in  verse  always  goes  before  composition  in  prose,  and 
the  earliest  Greek  works  that  we  have  are  those  of 
the  poets.  The  poems  which  go  by  the  name  of 
Homer,  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  give  us  a  picture  of  the 
state  of  things  in  the  earliest  days  of  Greece,  and  al- 
lusions and  expressions  in  them  also  help  us  to  some 
particular  facts.  But  scholars  no  longer  believe  that 
the  story  of  the  war  of  Troy  is  a  true  history,  though 
the  tale  most  likely  arose  out  of  the  settlements  of 
the  Greeks  on  the  north-west  coast  of  Asia.  These 
settlements  were  among  the  earliest  of  the  Greek 
colonies,  the  very  earliest  probably  being  the  settle- 
ments in  the  southern  islands  of  the  ./Egsean,  which 
Homer  himself  speaks  of.  These  were  made  so 
early  that  it  is  vain  to  try  to  give  them  any  exact 
date.  Presently  we  get  glimmerings,  which  seem  to 
have  been  preserved  partly  by  poets  and  partly  by 
tradition,  of  a  great  movement  by  which  the  Dorians, 
a  people  of  Northern  Greece,  came  and  conquered 
the  Achaians  in  Peloponnesos  and  dwelled  in  their  chief 
cities,  Argos,  Sparta,  Corinth,  and  others.  The  other 
chief  division  of  the  Greek  nations  was  the  Ionian*, 
whose  chief  city  was  Athens,  and  who  are  said  to  have 
planted  many  colonies  in  Asia  about  the  same  time 
when  the  Dorians  came  into  Peloponnesos.  And  when 
we  get  down  to  times  to  which  we  can  give  something 
more  like  exacUdates,  we  have  remains  of  several  poets 
which  sometimes  help  us  to  particular  facts.  Thus  there 
was  a  war  in  which  Sparta  conquered  her  neighbours  of 
Mtssene,  of  which  we  learnt  something  from  the  poems 
of  the  minstrel  Tyrtaios,  who  made  songs  to  encourage 
the  Spartan  warriors.  This  was  in  the  seventh  cen- 
tury before  Christ ;  and  in  the  next  century,  Solon,  the 
famous  lawgiver  of  Athens,  made  laws  for  his  owu  -u^ 


ii.]  THE  PERSIANS.  31 

and  first  gave  the  mass  of  the  people  a  share  in  the 
government,  which  wis  the  beginning  of  the  famous 
democracy.  Solon  was  also  a  poet,  and  we  have 
some  remains  of  his  verses,  which  throw  light  on  his 
political  doings.  So  again,  the  poems  of  Theognis  of 
Megara  throw  some  light  on  the  disputes  between  the 
nobles  and  the  people  in  that  city.  But  from  frag- 
ments like  these  we  can  get  no  connected  history,  so 
that  most  of  what  we  know  of  these  days  comes  from 
later  writers,  who  did  not  live  near  the  time,  and 
whose  accounts  therefore  cannot  be  trusted  in  every 
detail.  It  is  only  when  we  come  to  the  Persian  Wars, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  before  Christ, 
that  we  begin  to  have  really  trustworthy  accounts. 
For  those  times  we  have  the  history  of  Herodotos,  who, 
though  he  did  not  himself  live  at  the  time,  had  seen 
and  spoken  with  those  who  did.  By  this  time  the  chief 
cities  of  Greece  had  settled  down  under  their  several 
forms  of  government,  aristocratic  or  democratic.  And 
most  of  the  colonies  had  been  founded,  especially 
those  in  Italy  and  Sicily,  which  were  at  this  time  very 
flourishing,  though  many  of  them  were  under  Tyrants. 
Greece  had  now  pretty  well  put  on  the  shape  which 
she  was  to  wear  during  the  greatest  times  of  her 
nistory,  and  she  had  now  to  bear  the  trial  of  a  great 
foreign  invasion  and  to  come  out  all  the  stronger 
for  it. 

1 2.  The  Persians. — The  people  of  Persia,  though 
they  lived  far  away  from  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, in  the  further  part  of  Asia  beyond  the  great 
rivers  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  were  much  more  nearly 
allied  to  the  Greeks  in  blood  and  speech  than  most 
of  the  nations  which  lay  between  them.  For  they  be- 
longed to  the  Eastern  branch  of  the  Aryan  family,  who 
had  remained  so  long  separate  from  their  kinsfolk  in 
Europe,  and  who  now  met  them  as  enemies.  The 
Persians  first  began  to  be  of  importance  in  the  sixth 
century  before  Christ,  when,  under  their  King  Cyrus, 


32       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAP 

they  became  a  conquering  people.  He  took  Babylon, 
which  at  that  time  was  the  great  power  of  Asia,  and 
also  conquered  the  kingdom  of  Lydia  in  Asia  Minor. 
This  conquest  first  brought  the  Persians  across  the 
Greeks,  first  in  Asia  and  then  in  Europe.  For  the 
Greeks  who  were  settled  along  the  coast  of  Asia  had 
been  just  before  conquered  by  Crcesus,  King  of  Lydia, 
the  first  foreign  prince  who  ever  bore  rule  over  any 
Greeks ;  and  now,  as  being  part  of  the  dominions 
of  Crcesus,  they  were  conquered  again  by  Cyrus.  The 
Greek  cities  of  Asia,  which  had,  up  to  this  time,  been 
among  the  greatest  cities  of  the  Greek  name,  now  lost 
their  freedom  and  much  of  their  greatness.  And  from 
this  time  various  disputes  arose  between  the  Persian 
Kings  and  the  Greeks  in  Europe.  The  Athenians 
had  now  driven  out  their  Tyrants  and  had  made  their 
government  more  democratic.  They  were  therefore 
full  of  life  and  energy,  and  they  gave  help  to  the 
Asiatic  Greeks  in  an  attempt  to  throw  off  the  Persian 
yoke.  Then  the  Persian  King  Darius  wished  to  make 
the  Athenians  to  take  back  Hippias,  the  son  of  Peisi- 
stratos,  who  had  been  their  Tyrant  At  last  Darius 
made  up  his  mind  to  punish  the  Athenians  and  to 
bring  the  other  Greeks  under  his  power;  and  thus 
the  wars  between  Greece  and  Persia  began. 

13.  The  Persian  Wars. — The  first  Persian 
expedition  against  Greece  was  sent  by  Darius  in  the 
year  490  B.C.  A  Persian  fleet  crossed  the  ^igajan, 
and  landed  an  army  in  Attica.  But,  far  smaller  as 
their  numbers  were,  the  Athenians,  under  their  general 
AliltiadeS)  utterly  defeated  the  invaders  in  the  famous 
battle  of  Marathon.  In  this  battle  the  Athenians  had 
no  help  except  a  small  force  from  their  neighbours  of 
Plataia,  a  small  town  on  the  Boeotian  border,  which 
was  in  close  alliance  with  them.  This  was  the  firs'r 
of  all  the  victories  of  the  West  over  the  East,  the 
first  battle  which  showed  how  skill  and  discipline 
can  prevail  over  mere  numbers.  As  such,  it  is 


II.]  THE  GROWTH  OF  ATHENS.  33 

the  most  memorable  battle  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Ten  years  later,  in  480  B.C.,  a  much  greater 
Persian  expedition  came  under  King  Xerxh  himself, 
the  son  of  Darius.  He  came  by  land,  and  all  the 
native  kingdoms  and  Greek  colonies  on  the  north 
coast  of  the  ^gaean,  and  even  a  large  part  of  Greece 
itself,  submitted  to  him.  Some  Greek  cities  indeed, 
especially  Thebes,  fought  for  the  Barbarians  against 
their  countrymen.  But  Athens,  Sparta,  and  several 
other  Greek  cities  withstood  the  power  of  Xerxes,  and 
in  the  end  drove  his  vast  fleet  and  army  back  again  in 
utter  defeat.  In  this  year  480,  were  fought  the  battle 
of  Tlurmopylai,  where  the  Spartan  King  Leonidas  was 
killed,  and  the  seafight  of  Salamis,  won  chiefly  by  the 
Athenian  fleet  under  Themistokles.  After  this  Xerxes 
went  back  ;  but  in  the  next  year  his  general  Mardonios 
was  defeated  by  the  Spartans  and  other  Greeks  in  the 
battle  of  Plataia.  and  the  same  day  the  Persians  were 
also  defeated  bath  by  land  and  sea  at  Mykale,  on  the 
coast  of  Asia,  These  three  battles,  Salamis,  Plataia, 
and  Mykale,  decided  the  war,  and  the  Persians  never 
again  dared  to  invade  Greece  itself.  But  the  war  went 
on  for  several  years  longer  before  the  Persians  were 
driven  out  of  various  posts  which  they  held  north  of 
the  ^Egsean.  Still,  they  were  at  last  wholly  driven  out 
of  Europe,  and  they  were  even  obliged  to  withdraw 
for  a  time  from  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia. 

14.  The  Growth  of  Athens. — At  the  beginning 
of  the  Persian  Wars,  Sparta  was  generally  looked  up 
to  as  the  chief  state  of  Greece ;  but,  as  Athens  was 
much  the  stronger  at  sea,  it  was  soon  found  that  she 
was  better  able  than  Sparta  to  carry  on  the  war  against 
the  Persians,  and  to  recover  and  protect  the  islands 
and  cities  on  the  coasts.  Most  of  these  cities  therefore 
joined  in  a  League,  of  which  Athens  was  the  head, 
and  which  was  set  in  order  by  the  Athenian  Aristcides, 
surnamed  the  fust.  But,  after  a  time,  Aihens,  instead 
of  being  merely  the  head,  gradually  became  the 


34       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAP. 

mistress  of  the  smaller  states,  and  most  of  them 
became  her  subjects,  paying  tribute  to  her.  Athens 
thus  rose  to  a  wonderful  degree  of  power  and 
splendour,  beyond  that  of  any  of  the  other  cities  of 
Greece.  The  chief  man  at  Athens  at  this  time  was 
Perikles,  the  greatest  statesman  of  Greece,  perhaps  of 
the  world,  under  whose  influence  the  Athenian  govern- 
ment became  a  still  more  perfect  democracy.  In  his 
time  Athens  was  adorned  with  the  temples  and  other 
public  buildings  which  the  world  has  admired  ever 
since.  This  was  also  the  time  of  the  great  dramatic 
poets,  ^£schylus,  Sophokles,  Euripides,  and  Aristo- 
phanes. ^Eschylus  had  fought  in  all  the  great  battles 
with  the  Persians.  Euripides  and  Aristophanes  were 
younger  men  who  lived  on  through  the  next  period. 
Oratory,  which  was  so  needful  in  a  democratic  state, 
began  to  be  studied  as  an  art,  and  so  were  the  differ- 
ent forms  of  philosophy  ;  in  fact,  there  never  was  a 
time  when  the  human  mind  was  brought  so  near  to 
its  highest  pitch  as  in  these  few  years  of  the  greatest 
power  and  splendour  of  Athens. 

15.  The  Peloponnesian  War. — But  the  great 
power  of  Athens  raised  the  jealousy  of  many  of  the 
other  Greek  cities,  and  at  last  a  war  broke  out  between 
Athens  and  her  allies  on  the  one  side,  and  Sparta  and 
her  allies  on  the  other.  This  war,  which  began  in  the 
year  431  B.C.  and  lasted  for  twenty-nine  years  almost 
without  stopping,  was  known  as  the  Peloponnesian 
War,  because  it  was  waged  by  the  Athenians  against 
Sparta  and  her  allies,  among  whom  were  the  greater 
part  of  the  cities  of  Peloponnesos,  besides  Thebes  and 
some  other  cities  in  other  parts  of  Greece.  Of  this 
war  we  know  all  the  events  in  great  detail,  because  we 
have  the  history  of  it  from  writers  who  lived  at  the 
time.  The  history  of  the  greater  part  of  the  war  was 
written  by  Thucydides,  who  was  not  only  living  at  the 
time,  but  himself  held  a  high  command  in  the  Athe- 
nian army.  And  the  history  of  the  latter  years  of 


n.]  THE  PELOPONNESIAN  WAR.  35 

the  war  was  written  by  Xenophon,  another  Athenian 
writer,  who  also  lived  at  the  time.  This  war  might  be 
looked  on  as  a  war  between  lonians  and  Dorians, 
between  democracy  and  oligarchy.  For  Athens  was  the 
chief  of  the  Ionian  and  democratic  states,  and  Sparta 
the  chief  of  the  Dorian  and  aristocratic  states.  But 
the  two  parties  were  never  exactly  divided  either  ao- 
cording  to  descent  or  according  to  forms  of  govern 
ment.  It  is  perhaps  more  important  to  remark  that 
Sparta  had  many  free  and  willing  allies,  while  Athens 
had  but  few  such,  so  that  she  had  to  fight  mainly  with 
her  own  forces  and  those  of  allies  who  were  really 
her  subjects.  During  the  first  ten  years  of  the  war, 
down  to  the  year  421,  the  two  parties  strove  with 
nearly  equal  success,  the  Athenians  being  much  the 
stronger  by  sea,  and  the  Spartans  and  their  allies  by 
land.  A  peace  was  then  made,  but  it  was  not  very 
well  kept ;  so  that  Thucydides  says  that  the  years  of 
peace  ought  to  be  reckoned  as  a  part  of  the  war. 
Then,  in  415,  the  Athenians  sent  a  fleet  to  attack  the 
city  of  Syracuse  in  Sicily.  The  Syracusans  got  help 
from  Sparta,  and  so  the  war  began  again ;  but,  after 
two  years  of  fighting  and  siege,  the  Athenians  were 
altogether  defeated  before  Syracuse.  The  allies  of 
Athens  now  began  to  revolt,  and  the  war  during  the 
later  years  was  carried  on  almost  wholly  on  the  coasts 
of  Asia.  The  Persians  now  began  to  take  a  share  in 
it,  because  they  were  eager  to  drive  away  the  Athenians 
from  those  coasts,  and  to  get  back  the  Greek  cities  in 
Asia.  But  they  did  more  in  the  way  of  giving,  and 
sometimes  only  promising,  money  to  the  Spartans  than 
by  actually  fighting.  Several  battles,  chiefly  by  sea, 
were  fought  in  these  wars  with  varying  success  ;  and 
it  is  wonderful  to  see  how  Athens  regained  her  strength 
after  her  loss  before  Syracuse.  At  last,  in  the  yeai 
405,  the  Athenians  \\ere  defeated  by  the  Spartan 
admiral  Lysandros  at  Aigospotamos  in  the  Hellespont 
Athens  was  now  besieged,  and  in  the  next  year  she 


36       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COL  ONIES.  [CHA». 

had  to  surrender.  She  now  lost  all  her  dominion  and 
her  great  naval  power,  and  was  obliged  to  become  a 
member  of  the  Spartan  alliance.  Her  democratic 
government  was  also  taken  away,  and  an  oligarchy  of 
thirty  men  was  set  up  under  the  protection  of  Sparta. 
But  in  the  next  year,  403,  the  oligarchy  was  put  down, 
and  Athens,  though  she  did  not  get  back  her  power, 
at  least  got  back  her  freedom. 

1 6.  The  Dominion  of  Sparta. — At  this  time, 
at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  Sparta. 
was  more  than  ever  the  greatest  power  of  Greece. 
From  this  time  Athens  has  no  longer  any  claim  to  be 
looked  on  as  holding  the  first  place.  But  she  still 
remained  one  of  the  greatest  among  the  Grecian  cities, 
and,  as  her  political  power  grew  less,  she  became  more 
and  more  the  acknowledged  chief  in  all  kinds  of 
literature  and  philosophy.  Her  loss  of  power,  which 
left  Sparta  for  a  while  without  a  rival,  presently  led  to 
great  changes.  New  powers  began  to  come  to  the 
front.  We  shall,  first  of  all,  see  the  foremost  place  in 
Greece  held  for  a  while  by  Thebes,  the  chief  city  of 
Bceotia,  which  had  always  been  reckoned  one  of  the 
greater  cities  of  Greece,  but  which  in  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  war  had  played  only  a  secondary  part  as  one 
of  the  allies  of  Sparta.  We  shall  next  see  the  power 
over  all  Greece  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  state  which 
had  hitherto  not  been  reckoned  to  be  Greek  at  all, 
through  the  victories  of  the  great  Macedonian  Kings, 
Philip  and  Alexander.  But  for  a  while  the  Spartans 
ha  i  it  all  their  own  way.  No  state  in  Greece  could 
stand  up  against  them;  the  government  of  most  of 
the  cities  passed  into  the  hands  of  men  who  were 
ready  to  do  whatever  the  Spartans  told  them,  and  in 
many  cities  there  even  were  Spartan  governors  and 
garrisons.  A  few  years  after  the  end  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  war,  the  Spartans  made  war  upon  Persia,  and 
their  King  A^esilaos  waged  several  successful  cam- 
paigns in  Asia  Minor.  But  by  this  time  several  of  the 


II.]  THE  RISE  OF  THEBES.  3) 

Greek  cities  had  got  jealous  and  weary  of  the  Spartan 
power,  and  the  Persian  King  Artaxerxes,  against  whom 
the  Spartans  were  fighting,  was  naturally  glad  to  help 
them  with  both  money  and  ships.  So  in  the  year  394 
Agesilaos  had  to  come  back  to  withstand  a  confederacy 
formed  against  Sparta  by  Athens,  Argos,  Corinth,  and 
Thebes.  Several  battles  were  fought ;  and,  though  the 
Spartans  commonly  had  the  victory,  yet  it  was  shown 
that  the  Theban  soldiers  were  able  to  do  great  things. 
In  the  former  part  of  this  war  the  Persian  King  sent 
his  great  Phoenician  fleet  to  help  the  Athenians  j'but 
afterwards  he  was  persuaded  to  change  sides,  and  in 
387  a  peace  was  made,  called  the  Peace  of  Antalkidas, 
by  which  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  were  given  up  to 
Persia,  and  those  of  Europe  were  declared  to  be  every 
one  independent.  But  in  truth  the  power  of  Sparta 
now  became  greater  than  ever,  and  the  Spartans 
domineered  and  interfered  with  the  other  cities  even 
more  than  before.  Among  other  things,  they  treach- 
erously seized  the  Kadmeia  or  citadel  of  Thebes,  and 
put  a  Spartan  garrison  in  it.  They  also  put  down  a 
confederacy  which  the  city  of  Olynthos  was  making 
among  the  Greek  cities  on  the  coasts  of  Macedonia 
and  Thrace,  and  thus  took  away  what  might  have  been 
a  great  check  to  the  growing  power  of  the  Macedonian 
Kings. 

17.  The  Rise  of  Thebes. — It  was  when  the 
power  of  Sparta  was  at  its  very  highest  that  it  was  over- 
thrown. The  Thebans,  who  had  shown  in  the  former 
war  that  they  were  nearly  as  good  soldiers  as  the 
Spartans  themselves,  now  rose  against  them.  In  379  the 
Spartans  were  driven  out  of  Thebes  ;  a  democratic 
government  was  set  up,  and  Thebes  under  two  great 
citizens,  Pelopidas  and  Epameinondas,  became  for  a 
while  the  chief  power  of  Greece.  The  Spartans  were 
defeated  in  371,  the  first  time  they  had  ever  been 
defeated  in  a  pitched  battle,  at  Leuktra  in  Bceotia. 
After  this  Epameinondas  invaded  Peloponnesos 


3*       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES,  [ciu.* 

several  times.  He  greatly  weakened  the  power  of 
Sparta  by  restoring  the  independence  of  Messtne*,  which 
the  Spartans  had  long  ago  conquered,  and  by  persuad- 
ing the  Arkadians  to  join  in  a  League  and  to  found 
Megalopolis  or  the  Great  City,  near  the  Spartan  frontier. 
During  the  first  part  of  this  war  the  Athenians  took 
part  with  Thebes,  and  in  the  latter  part  with  Sparta , 
and  in  the  course  of  it  they  won  back  a  great  deal 
of  their  power  by  sea,  and  again  got  many  of  the 
islands  and  maritime  cities  to  become  their  allies.  At 
last,  in  362,  Epameinondas  was  killed  at  Mantineia  in 
a  battle  against  the  Spartans  and  Athenians,  and  after 
his  death,  as  there  was  no  one  left  in  Thebes  fit  to 
take  his  place,  the  power  of  the  city  gradually  died  out. 
18.  The  Rise  of  Macedonia. — We  have 
already  seen  that,  though  the  Macedonians  seem  to 
have  been  closely  allied  to  the  Greeks,  and  though 
the  Macedonian  Kings  were  acknowledged  to  be 
of  Greek  descent,  yet  Macedonia  had  hitherto  not 
been  reckoned  as  a  Greek  state.  Its  Kings  had 
not  taken  much  share  in  Greek  affairs,  but  several  of 
them  had  done  much  to  strengthen  their  kingdom 
against  the  neighbouring  Barbarians,  and  also  to  bring 
in  Greek  arts  and  civilization  among  their  own  people. 
Just  at  this  time  there  arose  in  Macedonia  a  King 
called  Philip,  the  son  of  Amyntas,  who  did  much 
greater  things  than  any  of  the  Kings  who  had  gone 
before  him.  His  great  object  was,  not  exactly  to 
conquer  Greece  or  make  it  part  of  his  own  kingdom, 
but  rather  to  get  Macedonia  acknowledged  as  a  Greek 
state,  and,  as  such,  to  win  for  it  the  same  kind  of 
supremacy  over  the  other  Greek  states  which  had  been 
held  at  different  times  by  Mykene,  Argos,  Sparta, 
Athens,  and  Thebes.  He  artfully  contrived  to  mix 
himself  up  with  Grecian  affairs,  and  to  persuade 
many  of  the  Grecian  states  to  look  upon  him  as  theii 
deliverer,  and  as  the  champion  of  the  god  Apollon. 
The  temple  of  Delphi  had  been  plundered  by  th« 


n.J  ALEXANDER   THE  GREAT.  39 

Phokians,  and  Philip  put  himself  forward  as  the 
avenger  of  this  crime,  and  g^t  himself  admitted  as  a 
member  of  the  Ampkiktionic  Council,  the  great  religious 
assembly  of  Greece,  which  looked  after  the  affairs  of 
the  Delphian  Temple.  This  was  much  the  same  as 
formally  acknowledging  Macedonia  to  be  a  Greek 
state.  Philip  also  conquered  the  Greek  city  of  Olynthos 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  own  kingdom,  and  made 
the  peninsula  called  Chalkidike,  which  runs  out  as  it 
were  with  three  fingers  into  the  ^Egaean,  part  of 
Macedonia.  This  he  would  hardly  have  been  able 
to  do  if  the  Spartans  had  not  already  destroyed 
the  great  Greek  alliance  which  the  Olynthians  had 
begun  to  make  in  those  parts.  Philip  was  several 
times  at  war  with  Athens,  and  it  was  during  these  wars 
that  the  great  orator  Demosthenes  made  himself  famous 
by  the  speeches  which  he  made  to  stir  up  his  country- 
men to  act  vigorously.  Philip's  last  war  was  against 
Athens  and  Thebes  together,  and  in  338  he  gained  a 
victory  over  them  at  Chaironeia  in  Boeotia,  from  which 
the  overthrow  of  Grecian  freedom  may  be  dated.  After 
this,  all  the  Greeks,  except  the  Spartans,  were  partly 
persuaded,  partly  compelled,  to  hold  a  synod  at 
Corinth,  where  Philip  was  elected  captain-general  of 
all  Greece,  to  make  war  on  Persia  and  avenge  the 
old  invasions  of  Greece  by  Darius  and  Xerxes.  But, 
while  he  was  making  ready  for  a  great  expedition  into 
Asia,  he  was  murdered  in  the  year  336  by  one  of  his 
own  subjects. 

19.  Alexander  the  Great. — Philip  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Alexander,  known  as  Alexander  the 
Great.  He  was  presently  acknowledged  as  the  leader 
of  Greece  against  the  Persians,  as  his  father  had  been. 
Thebes  however,  where  Philip  had  put  a  Macedonian 
garrison,  now  revolted,  but  it  was  taken  and  destroyed 
by  Alexander.  In  the  next  year,  334,  Alexander  set 
out  on  his  great  expedition,  and  he  nevei  came  back  to 
Europe.  In  the  course  of  six  years  he  altogether 


40       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAP. 

subdued  the  Persian  Empire,  fightir  g  three  famous 
battles,  at  the  river  Granikos  in  Asia  Minor  in  334,  at 
/ssffs,  near  the  borders  of  Cilicia  and  Syria,  in  333, 
and  at  Arbela  or  Gaugame/a  in  Assyria  in  331.  In 
these  last  two  battles  the  Persian  King  Darius  was 
present,  and  was  utterly  defeated.  Between  the  last 
two  battles  Alexander  beseiged  and  took  Tyre,  and 
received  the  submission  of  Egypt,  where  he  founded 
the  famous  city  which  has  ever  since  borne  his  name, 
Alexandria.  Soon  after  the  battle  of  Gaugamela  Da- 
rius was  murdered  by  some  of  his  own  officers,  and 
Alexander  now  looked  upon  himself  as  King  of  Persia. 
He  afterwards  set  out,  half  exploring,  half  conquering, 
as  far  as  the  river  Hyphasis  in  northern  India,  beyond 
which  his  soldiers  refused  to  follow  him.  At  last  he 
died  at  Babylon  in  323,  having  made  greater  conquests 
than  were  ever  made  by  any  European  prince  before 
him  or  after  him.  And  there  was  no  conqueror  whose 
conquests  were  more  important,  and  in  a  certain  sense 
more  lasting  ;  for,  though  his  great  empire  broke  in 
pieces  almost  at  once,  yet  the  effects  of  his  career  have 
remained  to  all  time. 

20.  Effects  of  the  Conquests  of  Alexander. 
— The  conquests  of  Alexander,  though  they  were  won 
so  quickly,  and  though  a  large  part  of  them  were  soon 
lost  again,  made  a  great  and  lasting  change  through- 
out a  large  part  of  the  world.  Both  he  and  those  who 
came  after  him  were  great  builders  of  cities  ir  Asia 
Minor,  Syria,  Egypt,  and  as  fr.r  as  their  conquests 
reached.  In  each  of  these  cities  was  placed  a  Greek 
or  Macedonian  colony,  and  in  the  western  part  of  Asia 
most  of  these  cities  lived  and  flourished,  and  some  of 
them,  like  Alexandria  in  Egypt  and  Antioch  in  Syria, 
soon  took  their  place  among  the  greatest  cities  in  the 
world.  The  Greek  language  became  the  tongue  of  all 
government  and  literature  throughout  many  countries 
where  the  people  were  not  Greek  by  birth.  It  was 
thus  at  the  very  moment  that  Greece  began  to  lose 


0 


V 


7>a*. 


DOMINIONS  OF  ALEXA 


4  0    mnr*lvxixrs 

cn^K  * 

latfaeA 

as»<w  »       tii 

KILIKIA    ^o^J^, 

bptd&r* 


Antioch 


*> 


Loligl 


R  &  HIS  SUCCESSORS 


E.  50  from  Greenwich 


Flak  A  See.N.Y. 


' 


II.]          TKE  SUCCESSORS  OF  ALE}.'  'NDER.          45 

her  political  freedom  that  she  made,  as  it  were,  an  in- 
tellectual conquest  of  a  large  part  of  the  world.  And 
though,  in  the  cities  and  lands  which  in  this  way 
became  partially  Bd'lenized,  there  was  neither  the 
political  freedom  nor  the  original  genius  of  the  great 
statesmen  and  writers  of  old  Greece,  yet  mere  learn- 
ing and  science  flourished  as  they  had  never  flourished 
before.  The  Greek  tongue  became  the  common 
speech  of  the  civilized  world,  the  speech  which  men 
of  different  nations  used  in  speaking  to  one  another, 
much  as  they  use  French  now.  The  Greek  colonies 
had  done  much  to  spread  the  Greek  language  and 
manners  over  a  large  part  of  the  world.  The  Mace- 
donian conquests  now  did  still  more ;  but  they  did 
not,  as  the  old  colonies  had  done,  carry  also  Greek 
freedom  with  them. 

21.  The  Successors  of  Alexander. — The  great 
empire  of  Alexander  did  not  hold  together  even  in 
name  for  more  than  a  few  years  after  his  death.  He 
left  no  one  in  the  Macedonian  royal  family  who  was 
at  all  fit  to  take  his  place,  and  his  dominions  were 
gradually  divided  among  his  generals,  who  after  a 
little  while  took  the  title  of  Kings.  Thus  arose  the 
kingdom  of  the  Ptolemies  in  Egypt,  and  that  of  the 
descendants  of  Seleukos  in  the  East,  which  gradually 
shrank  up  into  the  kingdom  of  Syria.  In  the  countries 
beyond  the  Tigris  the  Macedonian  power  gradually 
died  out ;  but  various  states  arose  in  Asia  Minor, 
which  were  not  strictly  Greek,  but  which  had  a  greater 
or  less  tinge  of  Greek  cultivation.  Such  were  the 
kingdom  of  Pergamos  and  the  League  of  the  cities 
of  Lykia.  These  arose  in  countries  which  had  been 
fully  subdued  by  Alexander,  and  which  won  their 
independence  only  because  the  descendants  of 
Seleukos  could  not  keep  their  great  dominions  to- 
gether. But  Alexander's  conquests  had  been  made 
so  fast  that  some  parts  even  of  Western  Asia  were 
not  fully  subdued.  Thus  out  of  the  fragments  of  the 


42       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAF 

Persian  Empire  several  kingdoms  arose,  like  those 
of  Pontos  and  Bithynia,  which  were  ruled  by  native 
Kings,  but  which  also  affected  something  of  Greek 
civilization.  And  some  real  Greek  states  still  con- 
trived to  keep  their  independence  on  or  near  the 
coast  of  Asia,  as  the  city  of  Byzantion,  the  island  of 
Rhodes,  and  the  city  of  Herakleia,  which  last  was 
sometimes  a  commonwealth  and  sometimes  under 
Tyrants.  Of  many  of  these  states  we  shall  hear  again 
as  they  came  one  by  one  under  the  power  of  Rome. 
But  we  are  now  more  concerned  with  what  happened 
in  Macedonia  and  in  Greece  itself. 

22.  The  later  Macedonian  Kings. — The  death 
of  Alexander  was  followed  by  a  time  of  great  con- 
fusion in  Macedonia  and  Greece.  Even  while 
Alexander  was  away  in  Asia,  the  Spartans,  undei 
their  king  Algis,  had  tried  to  throw  off  the  Mace- 
donian yoke,  but  in  vain.  After  Alexander's  death 
another  attempt  was  made  by  several  of  the  Greek 
states,  especially  the  Athenians,  who  were  again  stirred 
up  by  Demosthenes,  and  ihcs£totians.  These  last  were 
a  people  of  western  Greece,  the  least  civilized  of  all 
the  Greek  states,  but  which  now  began  to  rise  to 
great  importance.  This  was  called  the  Lamian  War. 
In  the  end  the  Athenians  had  to  yield,  and  they  were 
obliged  by  the  Macedonian  general  Antipatros  to 
change  their  constitution,  making  it  much  less  democra- 
tic than  before,  and  depriving  many  of  the  citizens  of 
their  votes.  For  many  years  there  was  the  greatest 
confusion  in  Macedonia  and  Greece  and  all  the 
neighbouring  countries.  And  things  were  made  worse 
by  an  attack  from  an  enemy  with  whom  the  Greeks 
had  never  before  had  anything  to  do.  Greece  and 
Macedonia  were  invaded  by  the  Gar.ls.  By  these  we 
need  not  understand  people  from  Gaul  itself,  but 
some  of  those  Celtic  tribes  which  were  still  in  the 
east  of  Europe.  After  doing  much  mischief  in  those 
parts  the  Gauls  crossed  over  into  Asia,  and  there 


II.]  THE  LATER  MACEDONIAN  KINGS.  43 

founded  a  state  of  their  own  which  was  called  Galatia, 
and,  as  they  too  began  to  learn  something  of  Greek 
civilization,  Gallo-gnecia.  Meanwhile  Kings  were 
being  constantly  set  up  and  overthrown  in  Macedonia, 
and  each  of  them  tried  to  get  as  much  power  and 
influence  as  he  could  in  Greece  itself.  At  this  time 
too  Epeiros,  a  country  which  had  hitherto  been 
of  very  little  importance,  became  a  powerful  state 
under  its  King  Pyrrhos,  who  at  one  time  obtained 
possession  of  Macedonia.  He  also  waged  wars  in 
Italy  and  Sicily,  which  will  be  spoken  of  in  the  next 
chapter,  and  he  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  affairs 
of  Peloponnesos,  where  he  was  at  last  killed  in 
besieging  Argos,  in  272.  From  this  time  things  became 
rather  more  settled  ;  a  second  time  of  freedom,  if  not 
of  greatness,  began  in  Greece,  and  a  regular  dynasty 
of  Kings  fixed  itself  in  Macedonia.  The  old  royal 
family  was  quite  extinct,  and  the  second  set  of  Mace- 
donian Kings  were  the  descendants  of  Antigonos, 
one  of  the  most  famous  of  Alexander's  generals. 
His  son  Demetrios,  surnamed  Poliorketts  or  the 
Besieger,  got  possession  of  the  crown  of  Macedonia 
in  294.  Both  he  and  his  son  Antigonos  Gonatas  were 
driven  out  more  than  once,  but  in  the  end  Antigonos 
contrived  to  keep  the  Macedonian  crown,  and  to 
hand  it  on  to  his  descendants,  who  held  it  till  Mace- 
donia was  conquered  by  Rome. 

23.  The  later  History  of  Greece. — The  last 
days  of  Grecian  history,  before  the  country  came  alto- 
gether under  the  power  of  the  Romans,  are  in  seve- 
ral ways  very  unlike  times  which  went  before 
them.  The  states  which  are  most  important  in  these 
times  are  not  the  same  as  those  which  were  most 
important  in  the  old  days  of  the  Persian  and  Pelopon- 
nesian  Wars.  First  ot  all  we  must  remember  that 
Macedonia  and  Epeiros  must  now  be  reckoned  as 
Greek  states,  and  that  a  large  part  of  Greece, 
especially  in  the  north,  was  now  subject  to  the  Mace 


*4       GREECE  AND  THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  [CHAH 

donian  Kings,  or  at  least  altogether  under  their 
influence.  And,  among  the  states  of  Greece  itself, 
the  division  of  power  was  very  different  from  what 
it  had  been  in  earlier  times.  In  the  days  which  we 
have  now  come  to  neither  Athens  nor  Thebes  was 
of  any  great  account,  and,  though  Sparta  was  of  great 
importance  during  part  of  the  time,  yet  its  greatness 
was  only,  as  we  may  say,  by  fits  and  starts.  We  may 
say  that  the  chief  powers  of  Greece  now  were  Mace- 
donia, Achaia,  ^Ltolia,  and  Sparta.  Achaia  and 
^Etolia  are  states  of  which  but  little  is  heard  in 
Grecian  history  since  the  heroic  times,  and  the 
strength  which  they  had  now  chiefly  came  from  a 
cause  which  must  be  explained  a  little  more  at  length. 
24.  The  Achaian  and  ./Etolian  Leagues. — 
What  chiefly  distinguishes  this  part  of  Grecian  history 
from  earlier  times  is  that  we  have  now  but  little  to  do 
with  single  cities,  but  with  cities  and  tribes  bound 
together  so  as  to  make  states  of  much  greater  size. 
With  the  exception  of  Sparta,  the  Greek  states  which 
play  the  greatest  part  at  this  time  were  joined  together 
in  Leagues,  so  as  to  form  what  is  called  a  /VY//VY/,' 
Government,  such  as  there  is  now  in  Switzerland 
and  in  the  United  States  of  America.  That  is  to  say, 
several  cities  agreed  together  to  give  up  a  part  of  the 
power  which  naturally  belonged  to  each  city  separately 
to  an  Assembly  or  Council  or  body  of  magistrates  in 
which  all  had  a  share.  In  a  government  of  this  kind  the 
central  power  commonly  deals  with  all  matters  which 
concern  the  League  as  a  whole,  while  each  city  still  acts 
much  as  it  pleases  in  its  own  internal  affairs.  There  had 
been  several  Leagues  of  this  kind  in  Greece  from  the 
beginning,  but  they  were  chiefly  among  the  smaller 
and  less  famous  parts  of  the  Greek  nation,  and  they 
did  not  play  any  great  part  in  Grecian  affairs.  The 
only  one  which  was  of  much  note  in  earlier  times 
was  the  League  of  Boeotia,  and  that  could  hardly 
be  with  any  truth  called  a  League,  for  Thebes  was  so 


it.]  THE  ACHAIAN  LEAGUE.  45 

much  stronger  than  the  other  Boeotian  cities  as  to  be 
practically  mistress  of  all  of  them.  But  now  the 
Federal  states  of  Greece  come  to  be  of  special  impor- 
tance, because  it  was  found  that,  as  long  as  the  cities 
stood  one  by  one,  they  had  no  hope  of  keeping 
their  freedom  against  the  Macedonian  Kings,  and 
that  their  only  chance  of  doing  so  was  by  several 
cities  acting  together  in  matters  of  peace  and  war 
as  if  they  were  one  city.  The  greatest  of  these 
Leagues  was  that  of  Achaia,  which  began  with  the 
ten  small  Achaian  cities  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Corinthian  Gulf.  These  cities  had  been  joined  to- 
gether in  a  League  in  early  times,  but  in  the  times  of 
the  Macedonian  power  they  had  gradually  fallen 
asunder,  and  in  the  days  of  Antigonos  Gonatas  several 
of  them  were  in  the  hands  of  Tyrants,  who  reigned 
under  Macedonian  protection.  This  was  the  case 
with  many  other  cities  of  Greece  also,  and  it  was  the 
great  object  of  the  League,  as  it  grew  and  strength- 
ened, to  set  free  these  cities  and  to  join  them  on  to 
its  own  body.  It  was  about  the  year  280  that  the 
old  Achaian  towns  began  to  draw  together  again,  the 
chief  leader  in  this  work  being  Markos  of  Keryneia. 
About  thirty  years  after,  in  251,  the  League  began  to 
extend  itself  by  admitting  the  city  of  Sikyon  as  a 
member  of  its  body.  Sikyon  had  just  been '  set  free 
by  Aratos,  who  now  became  the  leading  man  in  the 
League,  and,  under  his  administration  and  that  of 
Philopoimen,  who  followed  him,  the  League  took  in 
one  city  after  another,  Corinth,  Megalopolis,  Argos, 
and  others,  at  first  only  with  their  own  good  will,  but 
afterwards  sometimes  by  force.  At  last  all  the  cities  of 
Peloponnesos  and  some  cities  beyond  the  Isthmus 
became  members  of  the  League.  The  ^Etolian 
League  on  the  other  side  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf  did 
not  bear  so  good  a  character  as  the  Achaian,  though 
its  form  of  government  was  much  the  same.  For  the 
<Etoli;uis,  though  a  brave  people  and  always  stout  ir 


46      GREECE  AND  THE  GKEEK  COLONIES.        [CH. 

defending  their  own  freedom,  were  ruder  and  fiercei 
than  most  of  the  Greeks,  and  were  much  given  to 
plunder  both  by  sea  and  land.  The  yEtolian  League 
thus  greatly  extended  itself,  and  became  more  power- 
ful than  that  of -Achaia,  but  its  policy  was  not  so  just 
and  honourable  as  that  of  Achaia  commonly  was. 
There  were  also  smaller  Leagues  in  Phokis  and  Akar- 
nania,  besides  the  League  of  Epeiros,  which  was  now 
counted  as  a  Greek  land,  and  which  had  got  rid  of  its 
Kings  and  had  changed  itself  into  a  Federal  common- 
wealth. Thus,  except  Sparta  at  one  end  and  Mace- 
donia at  the  other,  by  far  the  greater  part  of  Greece 
was  parted  out  among  the  different  Leagues. 

25.  The  last  Days  of  Independent  Greece. — 
For  a  long  time  the  great  object  of  the  Achaians  was 
to  set  free  the  cities  which  were  more  or  less  under  the 
Macedonian  power.  But  at  last  they  became  jealous 
of  Sparta,  which  was  again  becoming  a  great  power, 
and  in  227  a  war  broke  out  between  Sparta  and  the 
League.  Sparta  had  now  a  great  King  called  Kleomenes, 
who  had  upset  the  old  oligarchy  and  had  greatly 
increased  the  power  both  of  the  Kings  and  of  the 
people.  By  so  doing  he  put  quite  a  new  life  into  his 
country,  and  he  pressed  the  Achaians  so  hard  that  at 
last,  in  223,  they  asked  help  of  Antigonos  Doson,  King 
of  Macedonia,  which  they  only  got  by  giving  up  to 
him  the  citadel  of  Corinth.  The  Macedonians  and 
Achaians  together  defeated  Kleomenes,  and  Sparta's 
second  time  of  greatness  died  with  him.  The  next 
King  of  Macedonia,  Philip,  kept  on  the  alliance  with 
Achaia,  and  the  Achaians  and  Macedonians  fought 
together  in  a  war  with  ^Etolia  ;  bat,  though  the  League 
gained  in  extent,  it  lost  in  real  power  and  freedom  by 
joining  with  a  prince  who  was  strong  enough  to  be  its 
master.  Peace  was  made  over  all  Greece  in  216,  but 
by  this  time  the  Romans  had  begun  to  meddle  in 
Greek  affairs,  and  from  hence  the  history  of  Greece 
ind  Macedonia  chiefly  consists  of  the  steps  by  whick 


ni.]    LAST  DAYS  OF  INDEPENDENT  GREECE.       47 

they  were  swallowed  up  in  the  Roman  dominion. 
This  last  stage  of  their  history  will  therefore  best  be 
told  in  our  sketch  of  the  history  of  Rome. 

26.  Summary. — The  history  of  Greece  which  we 
have  thus  run  through,  though  it  is  the  history  only 
of  a  small  part  of  the  world  for  a  few  hundred  years, 
is  worth  fully  as  much  study  as  any  later  and  wider 
part  of  history.  It  is,  as  it  were,  the  history  of  the 
world  in  a  small  space.  There  is  no  lesson  to  be 
taught  by  history  in  general  which  is  not  taught  by  the 
history  of  Greece.  The  Greeks  too,  we  should  never 
forget,  were  the  first  people  to  show  the  world  what 
real  freedom  and  real  civilization  were.  And  they 
brought,  not  only  politics,  but  art  and  science  and 
literature  of  every  kind,  to  a  higher  pitch  than  any 
other  people  ever  did  without  borrowing  of  others. 
In  all  these  ways  Greece  has  influenced  the  world  for 
ever.  Still  the  influence  of  Greece  upon  later  history 
has  been  to  a  great  degree  indirect.  Greece  influenced 
Rome,  and  Rome  influenced  the  world.  But  with  the 
history  of  Rome  an  unbroken  chain  of  events  begins 
which  is  going  on  still  We  will  now  try  and  trace  it 
from  the  beginning. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    ROMAN    COMMONWEALTH. 

Ancient  extent  of  Italy  (i)— Gauls,  Venetians,  and  Ligu- 
rians  ivithin  its  modern  boundary  (i) — effect  of  the 
geography  of  the  country  on  its  history  (i)— inhabitants 
of  Italy  ;  the  Etruscans  and  the  'Creek  colonists  (2)— 
two  chief  branches  of  the  Italian  race,  O  scans  and  Latins 
(2,  $— language,  religion,  and  government;  tendency 
to  the  formation  of  Leagues  (4)— origin  of  Rome} 
characteristics  of  its  history  ($—the  Roman  Kings  (6) 
—dynasty  and  expulsion  of  the  Tarquinii  (&$—tk* 
powers  of  the  Kings  transferred  to  the  Consuls  (7)- 


48  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHA* 

disputes  between  Patricians  and  Plebeians  (7) — wars  of 
Rome  with  her  neighbours ;  taking  of  Veii  (8) — taking 
of  Rome  by  the  Gauls  (8) — wars  "with  the  Samnites 
and  Latins ;  gradual  conquest  of  Italy  (9) — state  of 
Italy  under  the  Romans;  distinction  of  Romans,  Latins, 
and  Italians  (10) — war  with  Pyrrhos  (i  i) — origin  and 
history  of  Carthage  (12) — First  Punic  War  (13) — 
cession  of  Sicily ;  nature  of  the  Roman  Provinces 
(14) — Second  Punic  War;  campaigns  of  Hannibal 
and  Scipio  (15) — Third  Punic  War;  destruction  of 
Carthage  (ib}— first  dealings  of  the  Romans  with  Greece 
( 1 7 ) — First  Macedonian  War  ( 1 7) — Second  Macedonian 
War ;  alliance  of  Rome  with  JEtolia  and  Achaia  (18) 
— campaign  of  Antiochos  in  Greece;  Roman  conquest 
of  s-£tolia  (19) — Third  Macedonian  War;  dismem- 
berment of  the  Macedonian  Kingdom  (20) — Fourth 
Macedonian  War;  Macedonia  becomes  a  Province 
(21) — war  with  Achaia;  destruction  of  Corinth  (21) — 
the  Macedonian  states  in  Asia;  revolt  of  the  Parthians 
(22) — war  with  Antiochos;  and  extension  of  Roman 
influence  in  Asia  (22)— -formation  of  the  Province  of 
Asia  (22) — conquest  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  (23) — conquest 
of  Spain  (24) — inhabitants  of  Transalpine  Gaul  (25) — 
affairs  of  Massalia;  formation  of  the  Roman  Province 
in  Gaul  (25) — invasion  of  the  Cimbri  and  Teutones ; 
their  defeat  by  Marius  (26) — Rome  dominant  round  the. 
Mediterranean;  her  relations  with  Egypt  (27) — in- 
ternal disputes  at  Rome ;  her  relations  to  her  allies ; 
murder  of  the  Gracchi  (27) — the  Social  War  ;  final 
conquest  of  the  Samnites  (28) — Civil  War  of  Marius 
and  Sulla;  Dictatorship  of  Sulla  (28) — war  with 
Mithridates ;  campaigns  of  Sulla  and  Pompcius  (29) — 
Roman  conquest  of  Syria;  dealings  with  Parthia  (30) — 
disputes  at  Rome  ;  rise  of  Caesar  (3 1 ) — Cesar's  conquests 
in  Gaul ;  his  campaigns  in  Germany  and  Britain  (32) — 
Civil  War  of  Pompeius  and  Casar  ;  Dictatorship  and 
death  of  Casar  (33) — Second  Civil  War;  Battles  of 
Pnilippi  and  Aktion;  Egypt  becomes  a  province  (34) — 
the  younger  Cczsar  becomes  Augustus;  beginning  of 
tke  Roman  Empire  (35). 

i.  The  Geography  of  Italy. — We  now  come  to 
the  history  of  the  second  of  the  three  great  peninsulas, 
that  of  Italy.  But  we  must  remember  that  in  early 


m.]  GEOGRAPHY  OF  ITALY.  49 

times  the  name  of  Italy  did  not  take  in  all  the  land 
that  we  now  understand  by  that  name,  and  that  a 
great  part  of  its  inhabitants  did  not  belong  to  the 
race  of  whom  we  shall  have  to  speak  of  as  Italians. 
The  greater  part  of  Northern  Italy,  all  north  of  the  Po 
and  a  good  deal  to  the  south  of  it,  was  counted  as 
part  of  Gaul,  and  was  inhabited  by  Celtic  people 
akin  to  those  on  the  other  side  of  the  Alps.  Thus 
there  was  Cisalpine  Gaul,  Gaul  on  this  side — that  is 
the  Italian  side — of  the  Alps,  as  well  as  Transalpine 
Gaul,  or  Gaul  beyond  the  Alps.  Milan,  Verona, 
Bologna,  and  other  famous  Italian  cities  thus  stand  in 
what  in  early  times  was  part  of  Gaul.  And  the 
country  in  the  extreme  north-east  was  held  by  the 
Venetians,  a  people  whose  origin  is  not  very  clear.  - 
They  gave  their  name  to  the  province  of  Venetia; 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  they  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  city  of  Venice,  which  did  not  begin  till 
many  ages  later.  And  the  land  between  the  Gulf  of 
Genoa  and  the  Po  was  held  by  the  Ligurians,  a 
people  who  were  most  likely  not  Aryans  at  all,  but  a 
remnant  of  the  older  inhabitants,  like  the  Basques. 
And  people  akin  to  the  Ligurians  seem  also  to  have 
held  the  islands  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  and  part  of 
Sicily.  None  of  these  lands  were  counted  as  part  of 
Italy  in  the  earliest  times,  so  that  the  name  of  Italy 
belonged  much  more  strictly  to  the  peninsula  than  it 
does  now.  The  name  seems  to  have  been  first  given 
to  quite  the  southern  part  only,  and  to  have  gradually 
spread  itself  northwards.  The  map  will  at  once  show 
that  the  peninsula  of  Italy,  though  it  is  so  long  and 
narrow  and  has  so  great  an  extent  of  sea-coast,  is 
not  so  broken  up  by  bays  and  arms  of  the  sea,  nor  has 
it  so  many  islands  round  about  it,  as  the  peninsula  of 
Greece.  And  though  many  parts  of  Italy  are  moun- 
tainous, and  though  the  great  chain  of  the  Apennines 
runs  from  one  end  of  the  peninsula  to  the  other,  yet  the 
whole  land  is  not  cut  up  into  little  valleys  in  the  wav 


50  TUE   ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.      [CHAP 

the  greater  part  of  Greece  is.  Two  things  came  of 
this  difference  between  Greece  and  Italy.  First,  the 
Italians  never  became  a  seafaring  people  in  the  same 
degree  that  the  Greeks  d'd,  nor  did  they  in  the  same 
way  send  out  colonies  to  all  parts  of  the  world  that 
they  knew.  Secondly,  there  never  were  so  many  great 
cities  in  Italy  as  there  were  in  Greece,  and  the  small 
Italian  towns  were  less  jealous  of  their  separate 
independence,  and  more  ready  than  the  Greek  cities 
to  join  together  in  leagues. 

2.  The  Inhabitants  of  Italy. — Setting  aside 
those  countries  which  were  not  then  reckoned  as  part 
of  Italy,  we  find  at  the  beginning  of  history  three 
chief  nations  dwelling  in  the  peninsula.  The  part  of 
Italy  between  the  Amo  and  the  Tiber  was  called 
Etruria,  the  land  of  the  Raseva  as  they  called  them- 
selves, otherwise  called  Tyrrhenians,  Tuscans,  and 
Etruscans.  The  origin  of  the  Etruscans  is  a  great 
puzzle,  but  most  likely  they  were  an  Aryan  people, 
though  their  tongue  was  very  unlike  those  of  the  other 
nations  of  Italy.  In  early  times  they  seem  to  have 
spread  over  a  much  larger  country  both  northwards 
and  southwards,  but  in  trustworthy  history  they  appear 
only  in  the  lands  already  spoken  of  on  the  western 
coast,  where  they  formed  a  confederation  of  twelve 
cities.  They  were  great  builders  and  skilful  in  many 
of  the  arts,  and  they  were  held  to  be  specially  wise 
in  divination  and  all  other  matters  belonging  to  the 
worship  of  the  Gods.  The  Etruscans,  like  the  Gauls 
and  Ligurians,  were  settled  in  what  we  now  call  Italy 
before  authentic  history  begins.  At  the  other  end, 
quite  in  the  south,  the  Greeks  planted  many  colonies, 
but  these  belong  to  a  later  time,  when  trustworthy 
history  was  beginning  among  the  Greeks,  though  it 
had  not  yet  begun  among  the  Italians.  The  map 
will  show  that  this  part  of  Italy  is  much  more 
like  Greece,  much  more  broken  up  by  bays  and 
I  cninsulas,  than  the  rest  of  Italy.  The  Greeks  were 


Hi.]  THE  INHABITANTS  OF  ITALY.  <->\ 

therefore,  as  we  have  already  seen,  able  to  found  many 
colonies  here,  some  of  which  flourished  so  greatly  in 
early  times  that  the  country  was  known  as  Great  Greece. 
But  at  the  time  when  history  begins,  all  Italy  in  the 
older  sense  (that  is,  not  reckoning  Liguria  and  Cisalpine 
Gaul),  except  Etruria,  was  inhabited  by  people  whom 
we  may  specially  call  Italians.  These,  as  we  have 
already  said.,  belonged  to  the  same  Aryan  swarm  as 
the  Greeks,  and  the  common  forefathers  of  both  must 
have  stayed  together  after  they  had  parted  off  from  the 
forefathers  of  the  Celts,  Teutons,  and  others.  The 
greater  part  of  Italy  was  occupied  by  tribes  sprung 
from  this  one  swarm,  some  of  whom  however  were 
more  closely  allied  to  the  Greeks  than  others.  But 
all  may  be  looked  on  as  coming  nearer  to  the  Greeks 
than  to  any  other  branch  of  the  Aryan  family.  But 
long  before  history  begins,  the  Greeks  and  the  Italians 
had  parted  off  into  distinct  nations,  and  the  Italians 
had  also  parted  oif  into  distinct  nations  among  them- 
selves. 

3.  The  Latin  and  Oscan  Races. — We  thus  set- 
that,  setting  aside  the  Etruscans  and  the  Greeks  who 
settled  in  later  times,  all  the  other  nations  of  ancient 
Italy  were  allied  to  one  another,  and  all  were  more 
remotely  allied  to  the  Greeks.  But  they  had  parted 
far  more  widely  among  themselves  than  the  different 
tribes  of  the  Greek  nation  ever  did.  The  Italian 
nations  fall  naturally  into  two  great  groups,  which  we 
may  call  roughly'the  Oscans,  lying  to  the  north-east, 
and  the  Latins,  lying  to  the  south-west.  Of  these  the 
Latins  were  those  who  were  more  nearly  allied  to  the 
Greeks.  The  Siculi  or  Sikels  especially,  in  southern 
Italy  and  in  Sicily,  to  which  islandthey  gave  theirnarne, 
and  some  other  of  the  tribes  in  the  south,  seem  to  have 
been  as  near  to  the  Greeks,  and  to  have  been  as  easily 
Hellenized,  as  their  neighbours  in  Epeiros  and  on  the 
coast  of  Asia.  The  Oscan  tribes,  Sabines,  Umbrians, 
and  others,  were  much  less  nearly  akin  to  the  Greeks, 


52  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHAP 

and  presently  the  Oscan  races  began  to  press  south- 
ward at  the  expense  both  of  the  Latins  and  Greek  colo- 
nies. It  was  these  Oscans  of  the  south,  the  Samnites, 
Lucanians,  and  others,  whose  incursions  gradually 
destroyed  the  greatness  and  freedom  of  the  Greek 
colonies  in  Italy. 

4.  Language,  Religion,  and  Government. — 
Our  knowledge  of  all  the  ancient  nations  of  Italy,  except 
the  Romans,  is  very  scanty,  but  it  would  seem  that 
the  differences  between  the  Latin  and  Oscan  races 
answered  rather  to  the  differences  between  the  Greeks 
and  their  most  nearly  allied  neighbours  than  to  the 
differences  of  Dorians  and  lonians  among  the  Greeks 
themselves.  Still  they  always  had  much  in  common 
in  language,  religion,  and  government.  The  old 
languages  of  Italy  all  gradually  gave  way  to  the 
Latin,  and  we  have  only  a  few  fragments  remaining  of 
any  of  them.  And  of  their  religion,  even  of  that  of 
the  Latins,  we  know  very  little,  because,  when  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  came  to  have  dealings  with  one 
another,  they  began  to  call  each  other's  Gods  by  the 
names  of  those  among  their  own  Gods  which  seemed 
most  like  them.  Thus  the  Greek  Zeus  and  the  Latin 
Jiipiter  got  confounded,  and  the  other  Gods  in  the 
like  sort.  But  one  thing  we  can  see,  that  none  of  the 
Italian  nations  had  so  many  stories  to  tell  about  their 
Gods  as  the  Greeks  had.  As  for  their  government,  we 
can  see  the  same  elements  as  among  the  Greeks  and 
other  Aryans, — the  King  or  other  chief,  the  nobles, 
and  the  ordinary  freemen.  In  fact,  owing,  as  we  have 
already  said,  to  the  nature  of  the  country,  the  common 
form  of  government  in  ancient  Italy  was  much  the 
same  as  that  common  in  the  ruder  parts  of  Greece, 
several  kindred  districts  or  small  towns  joining  together 
in  a  League.  Of  these  Leagues  the  most  famous  in 
history  was  that  of  the  Samnites,  an  inland  people  ol 
the  Oscan  stock,  and  that  of  the  thirty  cities  of  thf 
Latins  on  the  west  coast  south  of  the  Tiber. 


in.]  ORIGIN  OF  ROME.  53 

5.  The  Origin  of  Rome. — But  there  was  one 
Latin  city  which  was  destined  to  be  mighty  and  famous 
above  ajl,  and  to  become  the  mistress  of  Latium,  of 
Italy,  and  of  the  world.  This  was  the  town  of  Romt 
on  the  Tiber.  There  were  all  manner  of  traditions  in 
ancient  times,  and  all  manner  of  conjectures  have  been 
made  by  ingenious  men  in  later  days,  as  to  the  origin 
of  this  greatest  of  all  cities.  Into  these  we  cannot 
go  now.  The  story  most  generally  believed  by  the 
Romans  themselves  was  that  Rome  was  founded  by 
Romulus,  a  son  or  descendant  of  ^Eneas  (in  Greek 
Aineias),  one  of  the  Trojan  heroes  who  was  said  to 
have  escaped  after  the  taking  of  Troy,  and  to  have 
taken  refuge  in  Italy.  But  Romulus  or  Romus  is  merely 
one  of  those  names  which  were  made  up  because 
people  fancied  that  every  city  and  nation  must  have 
taken  its  name  from  some  man.  The  tales  about  the 
foundation  of  Rome,  and  about  its  early  Kings,  are 
mere  legends  which  cannot  be  trusted.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  Rome  began  as  a  border  town  of  the 
Latins,  on  the  march  or  frontier,  both  of  the  Etruscans 
beyond  the  Tiber,  and  of  the  Subines  in  the  moun- 
tains. The  first  Rome  was  a  settlement  on  the  hill 
by  the  Tiber  called  the  Palatine,  held  by  the  Latin 
tribe  of  the  Ramiics  or  Romans.  This  settlement  on 
the  Palatine  and  other  settlements  on  the  neighbour- 
ing hills  gradually  joined  into  one  city.  Of  these  the 
first  and  chief  was  the  Sabine  settlement  of  the 
Titienses  on  the  Capitoline  hill.  The  beginning  of 
the  growth  of  Rome  was  when  the  Latin  Ramnes  and 
the  Sabine  Titienses  made  a  league  together,  so  that 
their  people  gradually  became  two  tribes  in  one  city, 
instead  of  two  distinct  cities.  This  was  the  beginning 
of  the  way  in  which  Rome  became  the  greatest  of  all 
cities,  namely  by  constantly  granting  its  citizenship 
both  to  its  allies  and  to  its  conquered  enemies.  Step 
by  step,  the  people  of  Latium,  of  Italy,  and  of  the 
whole  civilized  world,  all  became  Romans,  This 


b4  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.       [CHA?. 

is  what  ically  distinguishes  the  Roman  history  from 
al!  othev  history,  and  it  is  what  made  the  power  of 
Rome  so  great  and  lasting. 

6.  The  Roman  Kings. — There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Rome,  like  the  Greek  cities,  was  at  first  governed 
by  Kings,  who  ruled  by  the  help  of  a  Senate  and  an 
Assembly  of  the   People.      But  the   Roman    Kings, 
unlike  those  in  Greece,  were  not  hereditary,  nor  were 
they  even  chosen  from  any  particular  family.     It  is 
said,  and  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely,  that  the  old  rule  was 
to  choose  the  King  in  turn  from  the  two  tribes  of 
the  Ramnes  and  Titienses.     The  legend  gives  us  the 
names  of  seven  Kings,  and  it  is  most  likely  that  the 
two  or  three  last  names  on  the  list  are  those  of  real 
persons.     These  are  the  dynasty  of   the    Tarquinii, 
about  whom  there  have  been  many  opinions,  but  who 
most  likely  were  Etruscans,  and  who  seem  to  have 
adorned  Rome  with  buildings  and  works  of  Etruscan 
art.     At  all  events  they  greatly  extended  the  power  of 
Rome,  so  that  she  became  the  greatest  of  all  Latin 
cities.       The    last    King,  Lucius    Tarquinius,    called 
Superbus  or  the  Proud,  is  said  to  have  acted  as  a  cruel 
tyrant,  and  to  have  had  no  regard  foi»  the  laws  of  the 
Kings  who  had  gone  before  him.     He  was  therefore 
driven  out  with  his  family,  and  the  Romans  now  said 
they  would  have  no  more  Kings,  and  they  ever  after 
hated  the  very  name  of  King.     This  is  said  to  have 
happened   B.C.  510,  about  the  same  time  when  the 
Tyrant  Hippias,  son  of  Peisistratos,  was  driven  out  of 
Athens.     There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  driving  out 
of  the   Kings  ot    Rome  is  a  real  event,  but,  as  we 
have  no  accounts  of  it  written  at  the   time,  or  foi 
ages   after,  we  cannot   be   certain  as  to  the  detail? 
of    the    story,   or    as    to    the   exact    time  when   it 
happened. 

7.  The  Roman  Commonwealth  — The  Roman 
history  is,   for  want  of  contemporary  accounts,    ver) 
uncertain  for  a  long  time  after  the  driving  out  of  the 


HI.]  THE  KINGS  AND  THE  CONSULS.  55 

Kings.  Much  of  what  commonly  passes  for  Roman 
history  is  really  made  up  of  legends,  which  are  often 
most  beautiful  as  legends,  but  which  still  are  not 
history.  Much  of  it  also  comes  from  what  is  much 
worse  than  legends,  namely,  mere  inventions  in  honour 
of  Rome  or  of  some  particular  Roman  family.  It 
is  not  till  two  hundred  years  and  more  after  the 
Kings  that  we  come  to  history  of  which  we  can 
fully  trust  the  details.  Still  we  can  make  out  some- 
thing, both  as  to  the  internal  constitution  of  Rome 
and  as  to  the  steps  by  which  she  made  her  way  to  the 
headship  of  Italy.  The  chief  thing  to  be  remembered 
is  that  Rome  was  a  city  bearing  rule  over  other  cities 
The  government  of  the  Roman  commonwealth  was 
the  government  of  a  city  ;  and  so  it  always  remained, 
even  after  Rome  had  come  to  be  the  head  of  Italy, 
and  even  of  the  world.  When  the  Kings  were  driven 
out,  the  powers  which  had  belonged  to  the  Kings  were 
entrusted  to  two  magistrates,  who  were  at  first  called 
Prtztors  and  afterwards  Consuls,  and  who  were  chosen 
for  one  year  only.  The  Senate  and  the  Assembly  of 
the  People  went  on  much  as  they  had  done  under  the 
Kings,  but,  soon  after  the  Kings  were  driven  out, 
there  began  to  be  great  dissensions  within  the  Roman 
Commonwealth.  For  there  was  a  very  old  division  of 
the  Roman  people  into  Patricians  and  Plebeians  or 
Commons,  of  whom  the  Patricians  for  a  long  lime  kept 
all  the  chief  powers  of  the  state  in  their  own  hands. 
Most  likely  the  Patricians  were  the  descendants  of  the 
arst  citizens,  and  the  Plebeians  were  the  descendants  of 
allies  or  subjects  who  had  been  afterwards  admitted  to 
the  franchise.  This  division  must  have  begun  in  the 
time  of  the  Kings,  as*  it  began  to  be  of  great  impor- 
tance very  soon  after  they  were  driven  out.  At  first 
the  Consuls  and  other  magistrates  were  chosen  from 
among  the  Patricians  or  old  citizens  only,  though 
the  Plebeians  voted  in  choosing  them.  There  were 
long  disputes  between  the  two  orders,  as  the  privileges 


56  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHAP. 

of  the  Patricians  were  felt  to  be  very  oppressive,  and 
gradually  the  Plebeians  obtained  the  right  to  be  chosen 
to  the  consulship  and  other  high  dignities.  The 
first  plebeian  Consul  was  Lucius  Sextius  in  B.C.  366, 
about  the  time  when  Epameinondas  was  warring  in 
Peloponnesus.  After  this  the  two  orders  were  gradu- 
ally reconciled,  and  many  of  the  greatest  men  in  the 
later  history  of  Rome  were  Plebeians. 

8.  Wars  of  Rome  with  her  Neighbours. — At 
the  time  when  the  kingly  government  of  Rome  came 
to  an  end,  she  was  strong  enough  to  make  a  treaty 
with  Carthage,  in  which  she  contracts,  not  only  on 
her  own  behalf,  but  also  on  that  of  all  the  Latin  cities 
of  the  coast  as  her  subjects  or  dependent  allies.  But 
she  seems  to  have  lost  a  good  deal  of  her  power  after 
the  Kings  were  driven  out  Her  chief  enemies  were 
the  Etruscans  on  the  one  side  of  her,  and  the  various 
Oscan  nations,  especially  those  called  the  ^Zquians 
and  Volsdans,  on  the  other.  With  the  Latin  cities  she 
was  for  a  long  time  in  close  alliance,  Rome,  as  a 
single  city,  being  one  party  to  the  treaty,  and  the  other 
Latin  cities,  as  a  League,  being  the  other  party. 
About  B.C.  396  Rome  greatly  extended  her  power  by 
the  conquest  of  Veii,  the  nearest  of  the  great  Etruscan 
cities.  This  was  taken  by  Marcus  Furius  Camillas, 
who  was  then  Dictator ;  that  is,  he  received,  for  six 
months  only,  greater  powers  than  the  Consuls  them- 
selves, as  was  often  done  in  times  of  special  danger 
and  difficulty.  But  soon  after  this  the  Roman  power 
received  a  great  check,  for  in  B.C.  390  the  Romans 
were  defeated  at  the  river  Allia  by  the  Gauls,  who,  it 
will  be  remembered,  held  most  of  the  northern  part  of 
what  is  now  called  Italy.  They  were  now  pressing 
southward,  and  invaded  Etruria.  The  city  of  Rome 
itself  was  taken,  but  the  Gauls  were  soon  either  driven 
out  or  paid  to  go  away,  and  it  is  wonderful  how  soon 
Rome  got  dver  this  great  blow.  And  from  this  time 
the  Roman  history  becomes  somewhat  more  trust 


III.]  ITALIAN  WARS  OF  ROME.  57 

worthy,  for  we  at  all  events  have  the  lists  of  the 
Consuls  and  other  magistrates,  though  there  is  stiL 
much  falsehood  and  exaggeration  in  our  accounts 
of  their  actions.  The  Romans  had  still  to  withstand 
several  invasions  of  the  Gauls,  and  they  had  many 
wars  with  their  neighbours,  in  which,  on  the  whole, 
they  went  on  increasing  their  territory,  and  ever  and 
anon  admitting  those  whom  they  conquered  to  their 
own  citizenship. 

9.  The  Roman  Conquest  of  Italy. — At  last, 
about  B.C.  343,  there  began  a  series  of  greater  wars  in 
Italy,  in  which  the  Romans  may  truly  be  said  to  have 
been  fighting  for  the  dominion  of  the  whole  land.    And 
in  the  space  of  about  sixty  years  they  gradually  won  it. 
The  Samnites,  a  nation  of  the  race  which  we  have 
roughly  called  Oscan,  were  now  the  chief  people  in 
the   South   of    Italy :   they  were   a  brave  and   stout 
people,  quite  able  to  contend  with  the  Romans   on 
equal  terms.     The  first  war  with  the  Samnites  did  not 
last  long,  and  it  was  followed  in  340  by  a  war  between 
Rome   and   her  old   allies  the   Latins.     The  Latins 
wished  for  a  more  complete  union  with  Rome,  and  for 
one  of  the  Consuls  fo  be  always  a  Latin ;  but  to  this 
the  Romans  would  not  agree.     The  end  of  the  war 
was  that  the  Latin  League  was  broken  up  and   the 
cities  were  merged  in  the  Roman  state  one  by  one. 
Then,  in  326,  came  a  second  Samnite  War,  which 
lasted  eighteen  years,  and  a  third  lasted  from  298  to 
290.     In   these   two   latter  wars  the  Samnites  were 
helped   by  the   Etruscans   and   Gauls,  but   all   were 
gradually  subdued,  and  by  the  year  282  Rome  was 
pretty  well  mistress  of  all  Italy,  except  some  of  the 
Greek  cities  in  the  South. 

10.  The  Italian  States  under  Rome. — The  con- 
dition of  the  Italian  states  under  the  Roman  dominion 
was  very  various,  but  we  may  say  that  the  free  people 
of  Italy   now  formed    three    main   classes,  Romans^ 
Latins,  and  Italians.     Many  of  the  allied  and  con- 


58  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.       [CHAP. 

querecl  states  were  altogether  merged  in  Rome  at  a 
very  early  time ;  their  people  became  Romans,  and 
formed  tribes  in  the  Roman  Assembly.  Rome,  in  the 
end,  gradually  admitted  all  the  people  of  Italy  to  her 
own  citizenship.  But,  till  an  Italian  city  which  was 
subject  to  Rome  received  the  Roman  citizenship,  its 
people  had  no  voice  at  all  in  the  general  government, 
in  choosing  the  magistrates,  or  in  matters  of  peace 
and  war.  And,  after  such  a  city  received  the  Roman 
citizenship,  the  only  way  in  which  its  citizens  could 
influence  such  matters  was  by  themselves  going  to 
Rome  and  giving  their  votes  in  the  Roman  Assembly. 
This  should  be  carefully  borne  in  mind  throughout,  as 
it  was  the  natural  consequence  of  the  Roman  govern- 
ment always  being  the  government  of  a  city.  Among 
the  states  whose  people  did  not  at  once  become 
Romans,  some  had  the  Latin  franchise,  as  it  was 
called,  the  franchise  which  was  at  first  given  to  the 
cities  of  Latium  and  afterwards  to  others  in  different 
parts.  This  did  not  give  full  Roman  citizenship,  but 
it  made  it  much  easier  to  obtain  it.  Lastly,  the 
Italians  or  Allies  kept  their  independent  constitutions 
in  all  internal  matters,  but  they  had  to  follow  the  lead 
of  Rome  in  all  matters  of  peace  and  war.  Thus  it 
was  that  the  Roman  dominion  in  Italy  was  a  dominion 
of  a  city  over  cities. 

ii.  The  War  with  Pyrrhos. — We  now  come  to 
the  beginning  of  the  wars  of  the  Romans  with  the  nations 
cut  of  Italy,  beginning  with  one  in  which  they  had 
to  fight  for  their  newly-won  dominion  in  Italy  itself. 
Soon  after  the  Roman  power  had  reached  into  South- 
ern Italy,  the  people  of  the  Greek  city  of  Taras  or 
Tarentum  contrived  to  offend  the  Romans,  and  they 
then  asked  Pyrrhos,  King  of  Epeiros,  to  come  and 
help  them  as  the  champion  of  a  Greek  city  threatened 
by  Barbarians.  Pyrrhos  came  over  in  281,  and  the 
Romans  had  now  to  try  their  strength  against  a  way  of 
fighting  quite  different  from  their  own,  and  that  under 


in.]  WAR  WITH  PYRRHOS.  59 

the  most  famous  warrior  of  the  age.  Pyrrhos  was 
joined  by  some  of  the  lately  conquered  nations  in 
Southern  Italy,  who  were  glad  of  a  chance  of  throw- 
ing off  the  Roman  yoke.  He  defeated  the  Romans  in 
two  battles,  but  with  so  much  loss  on  his  own  side  that 
he  was  glad  to  make  a  truce  and  to  go  over  into 
Sicily,  where  some  of  the  Greek  cities  had  asked  him 
to  help  them  against  the  Carthaginians.  In  276  he 
came  back  to  Italy,  but  in  the  next  year  he  was 
defeated  at  Beneventum  and  left  Italy  altogether.  In 
the  next  few  years  the  small  part  of  Italy  which  still 
held  out  against  Rome  was  subdued. 

12.  Carthage. — Rome  was  now  mistress  of  Italy, 
and  she  soon  began  to  be  entangled  in  wars  beyond 
its  boundaries.  The  greatest  power  besides  Rome  in 
the  western  Mediterranean  lands  was  the  city  of  Car- 
thage on  the  north  coast  of  Africa.  This,  as  we  have 
already  said,  was  a  Phoenician  city,  one  of  the  colonies 
of  the  older  Phoenician  cities  of  Tyre  and  Sidon. 
Carthage,  like  Rome,  was  a  city  bearing  rule  over 
other  cities ;  for  she  had  gained  a  certain  headship 
over  the  other  Phoenician  cities  in  Africa,  much  as 
Rome  had  over  the  Latin  and  other  cities  in  Italy. 
And  besides  the  kindred  Phoenician  cities,  Carthage 
bore  rule  also  over  many  of  the  native  tribes  whom 
the  Phoenician  settlers  found  in  Africa.  And,  unlike 
Rome  up  to  this  time,  she  had,  as  trading  cities  and 
countries  always  strive  to  have,  large  dominions  be- 
yond the  sea.  Carthage  at  this  time  bore  rule  over 
the  islands  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  and  she  had  also 
large  possessions  in  Sicily.  But  in  Sicily  a  constant 
warfare  was  kept  up  between  the  Phoenician  and  the 
Greek  settlements,  in  which  the  Tyrants  who  at  dif- 
ferent times  reigned  in  Syracuse  specially  distinguished 
themselves.  Such  were  Gclon,  who  reigned  at  the 
time  of  the  Persian  War, '  Dionysios,  who  reigned  at 
the  time  of  the  war  between  Sparta  and  Thebes,  and 
Agathokles,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Pyrrhos.  Af 


60  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHAP. 

Tyrants  in  their  own  city,  these  men  did  many  evi!> 
things ;  still  they  deserve  some  honour  as  champions 
of  the  Greek  nation  against  the  Phoenicians.  Sicily 
thus  became  the  great  battle-field  between  the  Aryan 
and  Semitic  races,  and  it  became  so  still  more  after 
the  Romans  stepped  in.  The  wars  between  Rome 
and  Carthage  also  bring  out  one  great  point  of  dif- 
ference between  the  two  cities.  For,  while  the 
Romans  waged  their  wars  by  the  hands  of  their  o\vn 
citizens  and  allies,  the  wars  of  Carthage  were  mainly 
carried  on  by  barbarian  mercenaries,  that  is,  soldiers 
serving  simply  for  pay,  whom  they  hired  both  in 
Africa  and  in  Gaul  and  Spain.  A  state  which  does 
this  can  never  hold  up  for  good  against  one  which 
uses  native  armies  ;  and  it  is  a  sign  of  the  great  wealth 
and  power  of  Carthage,  helped  still  more  by  a  few  very 
great  men  who  appeared  among  her  citizens,  that 
Carthage  could  hold  up  so  long  as  she  did.  Carthage 
had  indeed  one  other  great  advantage,  namely  that, 
as  a  trading  city,  she  was  very  strong  by  sea,  while 
the  Romans  had  as  yet  had  hardly  anything  to  do 
with  naval  affairs.  Thus  Carthage  and  Rome  were 
the  two  great  states  of  the  West,  and  it  could  hardly 
fail  but  that  war  should  spring  up  between  them 
about  something.  And  it  was  the  more  likely,  as  the 
island  of  Sicily  lay  between  them,  where'  the  Greek 
cities  which  were  threatened  by  Carthage  were  closely 
connected  with  the  Greek  subjects  of  Rome  in 
Southern  Italy. 

13.  The  First  Punic  War. — A  cause  of  quarrel 
was  soon  found  in  the  disputes  among  the  different 
towns  in  Sicily.  Rome,  as  the  head  of  Italy,  under- 
took to  protect  the  Mamertines,  a  body  of  Campanian 
mercenaries  who  had  seized  the  town  of  Mcssene  on 
the  strait.  Their  enemies  were  Hierdn  King  of  Syra- 
cuse— for  those  who  were  formerly  called  Tyrants 
now  called  themselves  Kings — and  Carthage.  Thus 
arose  the  first  Punic  War,  so  called  from  the  Latin 


in.]  THE  PUNIC  WARS.  61 

form  of  the  name  Phoenician.  This  war  went  on  be 
tween  Carthage  and  Rome  for  twenty-four  years, 
beginning  in  R.c.  264,  and  Hieron  had  soon  to 
change  the  Carthaginian  alliance  for  the  Roman. 
During  so  long  a  time  the  two  great  cities  contended 
with  very  varied  success,  the  war  being  chiefly  carried 
on  in  and  about  Sicily,  though  at  one  time  the  Roman 
Consul  Marcus  Atilius  Regulus,  who  is  one  of  the 
most  famous  heroes  of  Roman  legend,  carried  the  wat 
into  Africa.  For  a  long  time  the  Carthaginians  had 
greatly  the  advantage  at  sea;  but  gradually  the 
Romans  came  to  be  their  match  at  their  own 
weapons,  and  at  last  a  great  naval  victory  was  won 
by  the  Consul  Caius  Lutatius  Catulus,  which  made 
the  Carthaginians  ask  for  peace,  "he  First  Punic 
War  ended  in  B,C.  241. 

14.  Beginning  of  the   Roman  Provinces. — 
This  victory  over  the  Carthaginians  was  the  beginning 
of  a  new  state  of  things,  and  gave  Rome  quite  a  new 
class  of  subjects.     For,  when  peace  was  made,  Car- 
thage had  to  give  up  her  possessions  in  Sicily,  and 
the  island,  except  the  part  which  belonged  to  Hieron, 
became  a  Roman  province.     This  was  the  beginning 
of  the   Roman  Provinces,  that   is   the   dominions  of 
Rome  out  of  Italy.     Their  condition  was  much  worse 
than  that  of  the  Italian  allies,  for  the  provinces  were 
ruled  by  Roman  governors,  and  had   to  pay  tribute 
to  Rome.     The  Provincials  in  fact  were  mere  subjects, 
while  the  Italians,  though  dependent  allies,  were  still 
allies.      Though  they  were   bound  to   serve   in   the 
Roman  armies  and   to  follow  Rome    in   all  matters 
of  war  and  peace,  they  still  kept  their  own  consti- 
tutions and  no  Roman  governors  were  sent  to  rule 
them. 

15.  The  Second  Punic  or  Hannibalian  War. 
—  Twenty-three  years  passed  between  the  end  of  the 
first  Punic  War  and  the  beginning  of  the  second.  But 
in  the  meanwhile  the  Romans  got  possession,  rathe? 


62  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHAP. 

unfairly,  of  the  islands  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  which 
Carthage  had  kept  by  the  peace.  On  the  other  hand 
a  Carthaginian  dominion  was  growing  up  in  Spain 
under  Hamilcar  Barkas,  one  of  the  greatest  men  that 
Carthage  ever  reared,  his  son-in-law  Hasdrubal,  and 
his  son  Hannibal,  the  greatest  man  of  all,  and  one  ol 
the  greatest  generals  that  the  world  ever  saw.  Another 
quarrel  arose  between  Carthage  and  Rome,  whi-n 
Hannibal  took  the  Spanish  town  of  Saguntnm,  which 
the  Romans  claimed  as  an  ally.  War  began  in  218, 
and  Hannibal  carried  it  on  by  invading  Italy  by  land. 
This  was  one  of  the  most  famous  enterprises  in  all 
history.  Never  was  Rome  so  near  destruction  as  in 
the  war  with  Hannibal.  He  crossed  the  Alps  and 
defeated  the  Romans  in  four  battles,  the  greatest  of 
which  was  that  of  Cannce  in  B.C.  216.  Many  of  the 
Italian  allies  revolted  against  Rome,  and  the  war  went 
on  in  Italy  till  B.C.  203.  By  that  time  the  Romans  had 
taken  Syracuse,  which,  after  Hieron's  death,  had  for- 
saken their  alliance,  so  that  all  Sicily  was  now  a 
Roman  province.  They  had  also,  while  Hannibal 
was  in  Italy,  conquered  the  Carthaginian  possessions 
in  Spain.  Lastly,  the  Roman  general  who  had  been 
so  successful  in  Spain,  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  crossed 
over  into  Africa,  so  that  Hannibal  had  to  leave  Italy 
and  go  back  to  defend  Carthage  itself.  He  was  de- 
feated by  Scipio  in  the  battle  of  Zama  in  B.O.  202. 
Peace  was  now  made,  by  which  Carthage  gave  up  all 
her  possessions  out  of  Africa,  and  bound  herself  not 
to  make  war  without  the  consent  of  the  Romans. 
That  is  to  say,  Carthage  now  became  a  dependent 
ally  of  Rome.  The  Semitic  races  could  no  longer 
dispute  the  dominion  of  the  Mediterranean  lands  with 
the  Aryans. 

16.  The  Third  Punic  War.— The  last  war  with 
Carthage  began  about  fifty  years  after  the  second. 
The  Carthaginians  were  always  at  variance  with  their 
neighbour  Massinissa  King  of  Numidia,  who  had 


o.. 


THE  MEDITERRANEAN  LANDS 

at  the  beginning  of  the 
SECOND  PUNIC  WAR 


Roman  Pos.  &  Allies  | 
Carthagenian  do.  I 
Macedonian  do.  I 


Free  Greek  States  [ 
Syrian  Possessions  [ 
Egyptian  do. 


Longitude  E.  10  from  Greenwich 


PiskiSee.N.Y 


HI.J  CONQUEST  OF  CARTHAGE.  63 

been  a  useful  ally  of  Rome  in  the  former  war.  The 
Romans  always  favoured  Massinissa,  and  in  B.C.  149 
war  broke  out  again  between  Rome  and  Carthage. 
Three  years  later  Carthage  was  taken  by  the  younger 
Scipio,  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio  jEmilianus ;  the  city 
was  destroyed;  part  of  its  territory  was  given  to 
Massinissa,  and  part  became  the  Roman  province 
of  Africa.  This  is  an  example  of  the  way  in  which 
Rome  advanced  step  by  step.  By  the  first  Punic 
war  Carthage  lost  territory,  but  it  remained  quite 
independent.  The  Second  made  it  a  dependent  ally 
of  Rome,  but  left  it  free  in  its  internal  government. 
The  Third  destroyed  the  city  and  made  the  country  a 
province.  It  is  perhaps  hardly  needful  to  say  that 
Africa,  as  the  name  of  a  Roman  province,  does  not 
mean  the  whole  continent,  but  only  the  immediate 
territory  of  Carthage. 

17.  The  First  Macedonian  War. — We  see 
the  same  way  of  advancing  step  by  step  in  the  next 
great  conquest  made  by  Rome,  which  was  going  on  at 
the  same  time  as  the  Punic  Wars.  This  was  the 
conquest  of  Macedonia  and  Greece.  Many  things 
were  beginning  to  bring  the  Romans  and  the  Greeks 
together,  and,  when  any  people  began  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  Rome,  however  friendly  their  deal- 
ings might  be  at  first,  it  always  ended  in  the  other 
nation  being  sooner  or  later  swallowed  up  in  the 
Roman  dominion.  The  Romans  already  had  Greek 
subjects  in  Italy  and  Sicily.  They  were  now  begin- 
ning to  know  something  of  the  language  and  literature 
of  Greece,  and  to  imitate  them  in  writings  of  their 
own.  For  it  is  about  this  time  that  the  Roman 
literature  which  we  now  have  begins.  The  Romans 
now  began  to  have  dealings  with  the  Greeks  in  Greece 
itself ;  but  their  first  dealings  were  quite  friendly.  A 
war  broke  out  with  Illyria  in  B.C.  229,  which  ended 
in  the  island  of  Korkyra  and  the  cities  of  Apollonia 
and  Epidamnos  submitting  to  Rome.  These  were 


64  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHA» 

Greek  cities  on  the  Illyrian  coast,  and  they  welcomed 
the  Romans  as  deliverers.  But  Rome  had  now  got 
possessions  on  the  Greek  side  of  the  .^Egajan,  and  the 
conquest  of  those  lands  had  really  begun.  In  215 
Philip  King  of  Macedonia  made  a  league  with  Han- 
nibal, and  in  213  the  First  Macedonian  War  began, 
while  the  second  Punic  War  was  still  going  on.  In 
this  war  Philip  was  helped  by  the  leagues  of  Achaia, 
Akarnania,  and  £pdros,  while  Rome  found  allies  in 
the  League  of  s£tolia,  in  Attalos  King  of  Pergattws 
in  Asia,  and  Nabis  Tyrant  of  Sparta.  Since  the  fall 
of  Kleomenes,  Sparta  had  been  in  a  state  of  great 
confusion,  and  she  had  had  several  wars  with  the 
Achaians,  in  which  Philopoimin^  the  last  great  general 
of  Greece,  greatly  distinguished  himself.  Peace  was 
at  last  made  in  205,  and  some  changes  of  frontier 
were  made ;  but  the  chief  result  of  the  war  was  that 
Rome  had  now  begun  steadily  to  interfere  in  Greek 
and  Macedonian  affairs. 

18.  The  Second  Macedonian  War.— The 
first  war  with  Macedonia,  like  the  first  war  with 
Carthage,  did  not  affect  the  position  of  that  king- 
dom, or  of  any  other  of  the  Greek  states,  as  inde- 
pendent powers.  The  Second  Macedonian  War, 
which  began  in  B.C.  200,  marks  another  stage  in 
the  progress  of  conquest.  The  Romans  now  stepped 
in  to  help  the  Athenians,  who  were  their  allies,  and 
who  had  been  attacked  by  Phiiip.  The  ^Etolians 
took  the  Roman  side  from  the  beginning,  and  the 
Achaians  joined  them  in  198.  In  197  the  war  was 
ended  by  the  defeat  of  Philip  at  Kynosktphalt  in 
Thessaly,  and  the  next  year,  196,  the  Roman  Consul 
Titus  Qitinctius  Flamininus  proclaimed  the  liberty  of 
all  those  parts  of  Greece  which  had  been  under  his 
power.  Philip  thus  lost  a  large  part  of  his  territory, 
and  had  to  become  a  dependent  ally  of  Rome.  And 
from  this  time  we  may  count  the  Greeks  allies  at 
Rome,  though  nominally  free,  as  practically  dependent 


«L]  THE  MACEDONIAN  WARS.  65 

19.  The  Conquest  of  JEtolia. — The  yEtolians 
now  invited  the  Seleukid  King  Antiochos  the  Great  to 
cross  over  from  Asia  and  attack  the  Romans  in  Greece. 
He  crossed   over   in  192,  and  several   Greek  states 
joined  him,  but  the  Achaians  held  steadily  to  Rome. 
In  191  Antiochos  was  defeated  at  Thennopylai  by  the 
Consul   Manius  Acilius    Glabrio,  and   his  allies    the 
^Etolians  were  presently,  in  189,  obliged  to  become  a 
Roman  dependency,  being  the  first  within  the  borders 
of  Greece  itself.     Rome  also  took  the  islands  of  Za- 
kynthos  and  Kephallenia,  and  the  Achaian  League  was 
extended  over   all   Peloponnesos.     Rome   was   now 
really  mistress  of  Greece,  and  Grecian  history  from 
this  time  consists  mainly  of  her  dealings  with   the 
states  which  had  practically  become  her  subjects. 

20.  The     Third    Macedonian     War. — The 
Third  Macedonian  War,  waged  with  Perseus  the  son 
of  Philip,  began  in  171.     Most  of  the  Greek  states 
were  now  on  the  Macedonian  side,  for  it  had  become 
plain   that   Rome  was   much  more   dangerous  than 
Macedonia.     But   the   Achaians   remained   allies   of 
Rome,  though  they  were  from  this  time  treated  with 
great  insolence.     The  war  ended  with  the  victory  of 
Lucius   &milius  Paullus  at   Pydna   in    168.      The 
Macedonian    kingdom    was    now   cut   up   into    four 
commonwealths,  all  dependencies  of  Rome.     Epeiros 
was  subdued  and  most  of  its  cities  destroyed. 

21.  Final     Conquest    of    Macedonia    and 
Greece. — The  Fourth   Macedonian    War  happened 
at  exactly  the  same  time  as  the  Third  Punic  War,  in 
149.     The  Macedonians  rose  under  one  Andriskos, 
•who  called  himself  Philip,  and  gave  himself  out  as  the 
son  of  Perseus.     He  was  successful  for  a  time,  but  he 
was  overthrown  in  148,  and  Macedonia,  after  so  many 
stages,  at  last  became   a   Roman   province.     There 
were  also  many  disputes  between  Rome  and  Achaia, 
which  now  grew  into  a  war,  and  in  146  the  Achaians 
were  defeated  by  Lucius  Mummius,  and  Corwth  was 


66  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHAP. 

destroyed  in  the  same  year  as  Carthage.  The  League 
was  dissolved  for  a  while,  and  the  Achaian  cities 
became  formally  dependent  on  Rome,  But  Athens 
and  several  other  Greek  cities  and  islands  still  re- 
mained nominally  independent  The  history  of  these 
times  was  written  by  Polybios,  a  leading  man  in  th<? 
Achaian  League,  but  who,  being  a  prisoner  at  Rome, 
formed  a  close  friendship  with  the  younger  Scipio  and 
other  chief  Romans.  He  was  thus  able  to  look  with 
his  own  eyes  at  two  different  stages  of  the  world's 
history  in  a  way  that  perhaps  no  one  else  ever  could. 
22.  The  Romans  in  Asia. — Macedonia  and 
Greece  formed  easy  stepping-stones  for  the  Romans 
to  meddle  in  the  affairs  of  Asia.  By  far  the  greatest 
of  the  Macedonian  kingdoms  in  Asia  was  that  of  the 
descendants  of  Seleukos,  which  for  a  while  took  in  all 
Alexander's  conquests  in  Asia.  But  this  great  do- 
minion was  cut  short  in  the  East  about  B.C.  256  by 
the  revolt  of  the  Parthians  in  Northern  Persia. 
They  established  a  kingdom  under  the  descendants 
of  their  first  leader  Ashk  or  Arsakts,  which  in  after 
times  was  the  chief  rival  of  Rome.  The  eastern 
provinces  of  the  Seleukid  Kings  thus  fell  away  one 
by  one,  but  at  the  time  of  the  Second  Punic  War 
their  dominion  reached  to  the  ^gasan  at  one  end  and 
stretched  far  beyond  the  Tigris  at  the  other.  But  it  must 
be  remembered  that  there  were  several  states  in  West- 
ern Asia,  both  native  and  Macedonian,  like  the 
kingdoms  of  Pergamos  and  Bithynia,  which  did  not 
form  part  of  their  dominion.  All  these  states  were 
more  or  less  tinged  with  Greek  culture.  We  have 
already  seen  how  Antiochos,  called  the  Great,  had 
crossed  over  into  Greece  and  had  been  there  defeated 
by  the  Romans.  The  Romans  then  crossed  into  Asia, 
and  Antiochos  was  defeated  by  Lucius  Scipio  at  Mag- 
n&st'a  in  189.  Antiochos  had  now  to  give  up  all  his 
dominions  west  of  Mount  Tauros,  and  the  great 
dominion  of  the  Seleukid  Kings  shrank  up  into  a 


in.]  CONQUESTS  IN  ASIA.  67 

mere  kingdom  of  Syria.  But  their  capital  Antioch 
on  the  Orontes  still  remained  one  of  the  chief  seats  of 
Greek  culture,  and  one  of  the  greatest  cities  of  the 
world.  The  Romans  now  became  really  masters  of 
all  Western  Asia,  though  after  their  manner,  they  did 
not  as  yet  formally  take  any  part  of  the  land  to  them- 
selves. What  Antiochos  gave  up  they  divided  among 
their  allies,  giving  the  largest  share  to  Eumenfc  King 
of  Pergamos.  The  kingdom  of  Eumenes  thus  became 
the  greatest  state  in  Western  Asia,  and  his  capital,  like 
Antioch,  became  a  great  seat  of  Greek  culture  and 
learning.  And  a  little  later  the  cities  of  Lykia  joined 
together  in  a  free  and  most  wisely  managed  Confedera- 
tion, much  after  the  pattern  of  the  Achaian  League. 
But  from  this  time  Pergamos,  Lykia,  and  all  these 
Macedonian  or  Hellenized  states  looked  up  to  Rome, 
just  as  the  Greeks  in  Greece  itself  had  already  learned 
to  do.  At  last  in  1 33  Attalos,  the  last  king  of  Pergamos, 
left  his  dominions  to  the  Roman  people,  and  the  greater 
part  of  them  were  made  into  a  Roman  province,  by  the 
name  of  the  Province  of  Asia,  the  first  province  that 
Rome  held  beyond  the  ^Egaean. 

23.  The  Romans  in  Western  Europe. 
Conquest  of  Cisalpine  Gaul. — In  all  these  wars 
with  Carthage,  Macedonia,  and  Syria,  Rome  had 
to  struggle  with  enemies  on  something  like  equal 
terms.  All  were  civilized  states,  and  the  Macedonian 
Kings,  both  in  Macedonia  and  in  Asia,  had  kept  up 
the  military  discipline  of  Philip  and  Alexander.  We 
must  now  see  how  Rome  dealt  with  the  people  of 
the  Wesf,  the  forefathers  of  the  chief  nations  of 
modern  Europe,  but  who  then  were  only  brave  bar- 
barians. Her  first  conquest  among  these  was  naturally 
that  of  those  lands  within  the  Alps  which  are  now 
reckoned  part  of  Italy,  but  which  were  then  known 
as  Cisalpine  Gaul.  The  Gauls,  it  will  be  remembered, 
had  once  taken  Rome  itself,  and  they  had  shown 
themselves  dangerous  enemies  to  Rome  by  helping 


68  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHAf 

the  Samnites  and  Etruscans  against  her.  It  was  ns 
wonder  then  that  the  conquest  of  Cisalpine  Gaul 
began  almost  as  soon  as  the  conquest  of  Iu\y  Wijs 
over.  The  lands  south  of  the  Po  were  won  before 
the  first  Punic  War,  and  in  the  time  between  the  first 
and  the  second  Punic  Wars  the  conquest  went  on,  and 
several  colonies  were  planted  beyond  the  Po.  The 
Gauls  greatly  helped  Hannibal  in  his  invasion  of 
Italy,  but  they  presently  paid  dearly  for  so  doing. 
For,  as  soon  as  the  second  Punic  War  was  over,  the 
conquest  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  went  on,  and  was  ended 
by  about  191.  The  land  was  now  full  of  Roman  and 
Latin  colonies,  and  it  soon  became  a  Roman  land 
and  began  to  be  reckoned  part  of  Italy.  Liguria 
and  Venetia  were  conquered  soon  afterwards,  so  that 
the  Roman  power  took  in  all  within  the  Alps,  all  that 
we  now  call  Italy. 

24.  The  Conquest  of  Spain. — Meanwhile  the 
third  and  most  western  of  the  three  great  peninsulas, 
that  of  Spain,  was  being  added,  like  Greece  and  the 
neighbouring  countries,  to  the  Roman  dominion. 
Spain  was  the  only  one  of  the  great  countries  of 
Europe  where  the  mass  of  the  people  were  not  of  the 
Aryan  stock.  The  greater  part  of  the  land  was  still 
held  by  the  Iberians,  as  a  small  part  is  even  now  by 
their  descendants  the  Basques.  But  in  the  central 
part  of  the  peninsula  Celtic  tribes  had  pressed  in,  and 
we  have  seen  that  there  were  some  Phxnician  colonies 
in  the  south,  and  some  Greek  colonies  on  the  eas* 
coast.  In  the  time  between  the  First  and  Second 
Punic  Wars,  Hamilcar,  Hasdrubal,  and  Hannibal  had 
won  all  Spain  as  far  as  the  Ebro  for  Carthage.  But 
during  the  second  Punic  War,  between  the  years  2 1 1 
and  206,  the  Carthaginian  territories  in  Spain  were 
all  won  for  Rome  by  tlie  Scipios.  Rome  thus  became 
the  chief  power  in  Spain,  even  before  the  second 
Punic  War  was  over,  and  before  she  had  conquered 
all  Cisalpine  Gaul.  But  Spain  has  always  been  a  hard 


in.]          CONQUESTS  IN  SPAIN  AND  GAUL.  69 

country  to  conquer,  and  the  Romans  had  constant 
wars  with  the  native  tribes.  Still  we  may  look  on  the 
Roman  dominion  in  Spain  as  finally  established  in 
B.C.  133,  when  the  younger  Scipio  took  Numantia. 
This,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  in  the  same  year  as 
the  bequest  of  Attalos  which  gave  Rome  her  first 
Asiatic  possession,  and  Numantia  was  taken  by  the 
same  general  who  had  taken  Carthage.  From  this 
time  all  Spain  was  a  Roman  province,  except  some 
of  the  mountainous  parts  in  the  north,  where  native 
tribes  still  remained  free. 

25.  Beginning  of  the  Conquest  of  Trans- 
alpine Gaul. — The  conquests  of  Rome  in  Trans- 
alpine Gaul,  Gaul  beyond  the  Alps,  began  a  little 
later.  Gaul  in  the  geographical  sense,  the  land 
between  the  Rhine,  the  Alps,  the  Pyrenees,  and  the 
Ocean,  was  then,  as  now,  peopled  by  different  races, 
speaking  different  languages.  In  the  south  the  old 
non-Aryan  inhabitants  still  held  their  ground.  The 
districts  near  the  Alps  were  chiefly  held  by  Ligurians, 
while  Aquitaine,  3  name  which  then  meant  the  land 
between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Garonne,  was  Iberian. 
In  the  centre  the  Aryan  Celts  had  settled,  but  the 
next  wave,  the  Teutons,  were  most  likely  already 
pressing  upon  them,  though  when  our  kinsfolk  first 
crossed  the  Rhine  it  would  be  hard  to  say.  The 
Mediterranean  coast  of  Gaul  was  fringed  by  that 
group  of  Greek  cities  of  which  Massalia  was  the 
head.  Massalia  was  a  great  trading  city,  and  it  became 
an  ally,  at  first  a  really  equal  and  independent  ally, 
of  Rome.  This  was  in  218,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
second  Punic  War.  The  Romans  had  once  or  twice 
to  cross  the  Alps  to  defend  their  Greek  allies,  and  at 
last,  in  125,  a  Roman  province  was  formed  in  Trans- 
alpine Gaul,  in  the  land  which  has  ever  since  kept  the 
name  of  Provence.  At  the  same  time  the  colony  of 
Aqua  Sextia,  now  Aix,  was  founded.  As  usual,  the 
Roman  dominions  advanced,  and  twenty  years  later 


70  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHAP. 

the  Roman  province  reached  as  far  as  Geneva  to  the 
north  and  Tolosa  or  Toulouse  to  the  west. 

26.  The    Cimbri   and   Teutones. — It   is  not 
unlikely  that  the  Romans  would  now  have  gone  on 
and  conquered  the  whole  of  Gaul,  if  an  event  had 
not  happened  which  put  a  stop  for  some  time  to  their 
further  progress  in  those  parts.     For  about  this  time 
Gaul  was  invaded  by  avast  host  of  barbarians  called 
Cimbri  and  Teutones,  who  came  from  the  North,  but 
ibout  whom  there  has  been  much  doubt  whether  they 
really  were  of  Celtic  or  of  what  we  call  Teutonic  race. 
They  defeated  several  Roman  commanders  in  Gaul, 
but  in  102  the  Teutones  were  utterly  defeated  by  the 
Consul  Cains  Marius  near  Aqua  Sextice,  and  in  the 
next  year  the  war  was  finished  by  the  two  Consuls 
Marius  and  Quintus  Lutatius  Catulus  overthrowing  the 
Cimbri  also  at  Vercelltz  in  Cisalpine  Gaul.     This  was 
the  same  kind  of  danger  from  which  Rome  had  been 
saved  long  before  by  Camillus,  the  danger  of  being 
overthrown,  not  by  the  chief  of  a  civilized  people  like 
Pyrrhos  or  Hannibal,  but  by  a  people  who  were  still 
altogether  barbarous.     If  any  of  our  ancestors  had 
a  hand  in  this  invasion,  it  gives  it  a  special  interest  foi 
us ;  but,  at  all  events,  as  saving  Rome  from  this  great 
danger,   the  defeat   of  the  invaders  was  one  of  the 
greatest  events  in  Roman  history,  and  Cains  Marius  is 
one  of  Rome's  most  famous  men.     But,  fully  to  under- 
stand the  condition  of  Rome,  and  especially  to  under- 
stand the  position  of  Marius,  we  must  look  back  a 
little  at  the  state  of  things  in  Italy  while  these  great 
conquests  were  going  on  abroad.     It  will  however  be 
better  to  keep  the  details  of  the  internal  affairs  of 
Rome,  as  far  as  may  be,  for  the  special  History  of 
Rome,  and  to  speak  chiefly  of  those  things  which  con- 
cern the  relations  of  Rome  to  her  allies  and  subjects. 

27.  Rome  and  her  Allies. — We  have  thus  seen 
that,  in  the  space  of  about  two  hundred  years,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Samnite  Wars  to  the  conquest  of 


HI.]  .  ROME  AND  HER  ALLIES.  71 

Numantia  and  the  inheritance  of  the  province  of  Asia, 
Rome  had  come  to  be  the  mistress  of  all  the  lands 
round  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  The  whole  was  not  as 
yet  fully  annexed  and  made  into  provinces,  but  no 
power  was  left  which  had  the  least  chance  of  holding 
against  Rome.  The  only  great  power  with  which 
Rome  had  had  no  war  was  the  kingdom  of  Egypt, 
There  the  descendants  of  the  first  Ptolemy,  all  of  whom 
bore  his  name,  still  reigned,  and  Egypt  was  the  richest 
and  most  flourishing  of  the  Macedonian  kingdoms,  and 
its  capital  Alexandria  was  the  greatest  seat  of  Greek 
learning  and  science.  But  when  the  Romans  began 
to  be  powerful  in  Asia,  even  the  Ptolemies,  who  often 
had  wars  with  the  Seleukids,  began  to  look  to  Rome 
as  a  protector.  It  was  this  vast  dominion,  while  it 
made  Rome  so  great  in  the  face  of  other  nations,  which 
led  to  the  corruption  of  her  constitution  within,  and 
at  last  to  the  utter  loss  of  her  freedom.  The  form 
of  government  which  had  done  so  well  for  a  single  city 
with  a  small  territory  did  not  at  all  do  for  the  govern- 
ment of  so  large  a  portion  of  the  world.  Throughout 
the  Roman  dominions  the  Roman  People  was  sove- 
reign ;  the  Assembly  of  the  People  made  laws  and  chose 
magistrates  for  Rome  itself,  and  sent  out  generals  and 
governors  to  conquer  and  rule  in  the  subject  lands. 
'^liz  provincials,  and  even  the  allies,  had  no  voice  in 
settling  the  affairs  of  the  vast  dominion  of  which  they 
had  become  a  part,  and  they  were  often  greatly  op- 
pressed by  the  Roman  officers.  Meanwhile  in  Rome 
itself  the  great  offices  had  been  gradually  thrown  open 
to  the  Plebeians  as  well  as  the  Patricians,  and  hardly 
any  legal  distinction  was  left  between  the  two  orders. 
The  constitution  was  therefore  really  democratic ;  for 
the  sovereign  power  lay  in  the  Assembly  of  the  whole 
People,  which  made  the  laws  and  chose  the  magistrates. 
And,  in  choosing  the  magistrates,  they  also  indirectly 
chose  the  Senate,  as  the  Senate  was  mainly  made  up 
of  men  who  had  held  the  different  magistracies.  StiU 


72  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.       JCHAP 

the  constitution  had  a  great  tendency  to  become  prac- 
tically aristocratic.  For  the  men  who  had  held  great 
offices,  whether  patricians  or  plebeians,  began  to  form 
a  class  by  themselves,  and  their  descendants,  who  were 
now  called  nobles,  began  to  think  that  they  only 
had  a  right  to  hold  the  offices  which  their  forefathers 
had  held.  Then  again  the  old  citizens  of  Rome  were 
largely  cut  oft"  in  the  endless  wars,  and  many  freed 'men— 
that  is,  men  who  had  been  slaves — and  strangers  got 
the  citizenship,  so  that  the  character  of  the  Roman 
People  was  greatly  lowered.  And,  as  every  citizen 
who  wished  to  vote  had  to  come  to  Rome  in  his  own 
person,  the  Roman  Assembly  had  become  far  too 
large,  and  gradually  turned  into  a  mere  mob.  Then 
again  many  citizens  were  wretchedly  poor,  while  rich 
men  had  made  themselves  great  estates  out  of  the  land 
which  rightly  belonged  to  the  commonwealth.  Thus, 
instead  of  the  old  political  strife  between  patricians  and 
plebeians,  there  had  come,  what  was  a  great  deal  worse, 
a  social  strife  between  the  rich  and  the  poor.  While 
Rome-  had  still  powerful  enemies  to  strive  against,  these 
evils  did  not  make  themselves  so  much  felt ;  but,  when 
Rome  had  nothing  more  to  fear,  they  began  to  be  very 
glaring,  and  men  had  to  seek  for  remedies  for  them. 
And,  along  with  this,  the  Italian  allies,  who  had  not 
been  raised  to  Roman  citizenship  but  who  had  borne 
a  great  part  in  the  wars  of  Rome,  now  demanded  to 
be  made  Romans.  The  cause  of  the  poor  against  the 
rich  was  taken  up  by  Tiberius  Semprnnius  Gracchus, 
in  the  year  133  ;  and  the  cause  botli  of  the  poor  and 
of  the  allies  was  taken  up  by  his  brother  Cains  in  123. 
But  both  of  them  were  murdered  by  the  oligarchs,  who 
wished  to  keep  all  power  and  wealth  in  their  own  hands. 
28.  The  Social  War. — After  the  death  of  the 
Gracchi  the  ill  will  between  the  nobles  and  the  people, 
and  the  further  ill  will  between  the  Romans  and  the 
Italians,  still  went  on.  The  next  great  leader  of  the 
popular  party  was  Ciius  Afarius,  of  whom  we  have 


ml  THE  SOCIAL  WAR.  73 

already  Heard  as  the  conqueror  of  the  Teutones.  He  was 
not  of  any  high  family,  but  was  born  at  Arpinum,  an 
old  town  of  the  Volscians,  whose  people  did  not  obtain 
the  full  Roman  citizenship  till  188.  His  sympathies 
therefore  lay  with  the  people  against  the  oligarchs, 
and  still  more  with  the  Italians  against  either  the 
nobles  or  the  mob  of  Rome.  He  was  an  excellent 
soldier,  and  first  began  to  distinguish  himself  in  the 
war  with  Jugurtha,  who  had  usurped  the  kingdom  of 
Numidia,  whose  King  Massinissa  had  been  so  useful 
to  Rome  in  the  Punic  War.  This  war  began  in  nr, 
and  in  106  Marius  brought  the  war  to  an  end  and  led 
Jugurtha  in  triumph.  Very  soon  after  came  the  inva- 
sion of  the  Cimbri  and  Teutones  and  Marius'  great 
success  against  them.  He  was  now  the  chief  man 
in  Rome  and  the  leader  of  the  popular  party.  But 
the  complaints  of  the  Italians  still  went  on,  and  in  the 
year  90  most  of  them  rose  in  arms.  This  was  called* 
the  Social  War,  that  is  the  war  with  the  Socii  wt  Allies 
of  Rome.  It  was  ended  in  the  course  of  the  next 
year  by  all  the  allies,  except  the  Samnites  and  Luca- 
nians  in  the  south  of  Italy,  submitting  and  being  made 
Roman  citizens.  The  Samnites,  whom  it  had  cost 
Rome  so  much  trouble  to  conquer  two  hundred  years 
before,  still  held  out.  Marius  held  a  command  in  this 
war,  and  so  did  Lucius  Cornelius  Sulla,  who  had  been 
his  lieutenant  in  the  war  with  Jugurtha ;  but  Marius  did 
little  or  nothing,  and  went  far  to  lose  his  old  credit, 
while  Sulla  showed  himself  the  rising  man  of  Rome. 
Presently  a  Civil  War,  the  first  in  Roman  History, 
broke  out  between  Marius  and  Sulla,  in  which  the  war 
with  the  Samnites,  which  had  never  quite  come  to 
an  end,  merged  itself.  At  one  stage  of  this  war  Ser- 
torius,  a  Roman  general  on  the  Marian  side,  held 
Spain  almost  as  a  separate  power,  having  a  Senate  of 
his  own,  which  he  said  was  the  real  Roman  Senate.  In 
83  Sulla  came  back  from  his  wars  in  the  East,  of  which 
we  shall  speak  directly,  and  the  Samrates  joined  with 


74  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHA* 

the  Marian  party,  and  began  openly  to  declare  that 
Rome  must  be  destroyed.  Rome  had  never  been  in 
such  danger  since  quite  the  old  times,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  Sulla,  who  now  saved  Rome  and 
crushed  the  Samnites  and  the  Marian  party,  fixed  the 
future  history  of  the  world  far  more  than  Caesar  or 
anyone  else  who  came  after  him.  Sulla  now  took  to 
himself  the  supreme  power  at  Rome,  with  the  title  ol 
Perpetual  Dictator.  But,  when  he  had  quite  rooted 
out  the  Marian  party,  and  had  passed  a  series  of  laws 
to  confirm  the  dominion  of  the  aristocracy,  he  gave  up 
his  power,  and  lived  as  a  private  man  till  he  died  soon 
after.  Rome  had  now  passed  through  her  last  trial 
within  her  own  peninsula.  The  Samnites,  who  had 
withstood  to  the  last,  had  been  utterly  cut  off,  and  the 
other  Italians  had  become  Romans. 

29.  The  Mithridatic  War. — While  Rome  went 
through  this  great  trial  at  home,  she  had  to  undergo 
another  almost  as  great  abroad.  She  had  to  wage  a 
war  greater  than  any  that  she  had  waged  since  the 
conquest  of  Carthage  and  Macedonia.  One  of  those 
states  in  Asia  Minor  which  had  arisen,  as  was  before 
mentioned,  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old  Persian  Empire, 
was  Pontos,  the  Kingdom  of  the  Huxine  Sea — Pantos 
in  Greek  meaning  the  Sea,  and  specially  the  Euxine 
Sea.  Its  Kings  were  of  native  blood,  but,  like  all  their 
neighbours,  they  made  a  certain  pretence  to  Greek 
culture,  and  the  acquisition  of  the  province  of  Asia  by 
the  Romsjis  made  them  neighbours  of  Rome.  Pontos 
was  now  ruled  by  Mithridath  the  Sixth  or  the  Great. 
A  war  with  him  broke  out  while  the  Social  War  was 
going  on  in  Italy,  and  Mithridates  succeeded  in  win- 
ning all  Asia.  He  then  ordered  all  the  Romans  and 
Italians  who  were  settled  in  Asia  to  be  massacred  in 
one  day,  which  the  people  everywhere  did  very  wil- 
lingly— they  had  made  themselves  so  hateful.  Then 
his  generals,  like  Antiochos,  crossed  over  into  Greece, 
where  many  of  the  Greeks  took  his  side.  Sulla  then 


Hi.]        MITHRIDATIC  AND  SYRIAN  WARS.  75 

in  87,  came  into  Greece,  stormed  Athens,  won  two 
great  battles  at  Chairdnda  and  Orchomenos  in  Bceotia, 
and  then,  being  called  home  by  the  news  of  the  suc- 
cesses of  Marius,  patched  up  a  peace  by  which 
Mithridates  gave  up  all  his  conquests.  Such  a  peace 
was  not  likely  to  last,  and,  as  soon  as  he  had  a  good 
opportunity,  Mithridates  began  the  war  again.  This 
was  in  74,  and  the  second  war  between  him  and  the 
Romans,  first  under  Ludits  Lidnius  Lucullus  and  then 
under  Cnceus  Pompeius,  called  Magnus  or  the  Great, 
lasted  ten  years.  It  ended  in  the  overthrow  of  the 
Pontic  kingdom,  which  was  split  up  in  the  usual  way, 
and  in  the  complete  re-establishment  of  the  Roman 
power  in  Asia. 

30.  The  Conquest  of  Syria. — In  the  history 
of  Rome  one  conquest  always  led  to  another,  and, 
after  the  overthrow  of  Mithridates,  the  Roman  arms 
were  carried  by  Pompeius  much  further  towards  the 
East  than  they  had  ever  gone  before.  Tigranes,  King 
of  Armenia,  who  had  helped  Mithridates,  was  utterly 
humbled  ;  Syria,  the  remains  of  the  great  Seleukid 
kingdom,  was  partly  made  a  Roman  province,  partly 
divided  among  dependent  princes.  Pompeius  also 
took  Jerusalem  in  the  year  63,  and  Palestine  was 
henceforth  under  the  Roman  power,  though  it  was 
often  held  by  vassal  Kings,  such  as  the  Herods  in  the 
New  Testament.  The  Roman  power  now  reached 
from  the  Ocean  to  the  Euphrates,  and  the  Roman 
Commonwealth  may  be  looked  on  as  having  taken  the 
place  of  Alexander  and  his  successors  in  Asia,  as  the 
champion  of  the  West  against  the  East.  But  each 
increase  of  dominion  laid  it  open  to  fresh  enemies. 
The  Parthian  Kings  became  formidable  enemies,  and 
indeed  rivals,  of  Rome.  We  shall  hear  a  great  deal 
of  the  wars  and  other  dealings  between  Rome  and 
Parthia.  But  the  first  attempt  of  the  Romans  against 
Parthia,  which  was  made  by  Marcus  Ludnius  Crassus 
in  the  year  54,  was  utterly  unsuccessful.  Crassus  was 


7«  THE  ROMAK  COMMONWEALTH.       [CHA». 

defeated  and  killed,  and  the  more  part  of  his  array 
were  made  prisoners. 

31.  State  of   Things    at    Rome. — Meanwhile 
it    became    more   and    more    plain   how    unfit    the 
government  of  the  single  city  of  Rome  was  to  rule 
all  Italy  and  the  world.     New  discontents  arose  out 
of  the  admission  of  the  Italians  to  the  Roman  citizen- 
ship, and  the  commonwealth  was  torn  in  pieces  by  the 
disputes  of  the  leading  men.     We  now  come  to  the 
famous  men  of  the  last  days  of  the  Commonwealth, 
— Pompeius  and  Crassus,  of  whom  we  have  already 
heard,  Marcus  Tullius  Cicero  the  great  orator,  Marcus 
Porcius  CalOy  and  the  most  famous  of  all,  Caius  Juiius 
C&sar.     We  shall  say  more  of  their  doings  at  home 
in  the   special    History  of  Rome.     It  may  here  be 
enough  to  say  that,  as  far  as  natural  gifts  went,  Caesar 
was  perhaps  the  greatest  man  that  ever  lived,  being 
great  in  all  ways,  equally  as  soldier,  statesman,  and 
scholar.     He  was  of  an  old  patrician  house,    but  he 
was  connected  with  the  family  of  Marius,  and  he  took 
up  the  cause  of  the  people  not  honestly,   like   the 
Gracchi,    but   to   serve   his    own    ends.     The    whole 
Commonwealth  was  now  utterly  corrupt;  still  Pompeius 
and   Cicero,   though  there  were   plenty   of  faults  on 
their  side,  did  strive  to  defend  the  law  and  constitution, 
such  as  it  was,  while  the  Roman  people  had  sunk  into 
a  mere  mob,  which  men  like  Caesar  could  use  as  they 
chose. 

32.  Caesar's  Conquests  in  Gaul. — In  the  year 
59  Caesar  was  Consul,  and  in  the  next  year  he  went 
into  Gaul,  which  had  been  given  him  as  his  province, 
and  where  he  spent  about  seven  years  in  conquering 
the  whole  of  the  country.     Instead  of  a  small  part 
of  southern  Gaul,  the  Roman  dominion  now  reached 
to  the  Rhine  and  the  British  Channel.     In  this  war 
the  Romans   first   had  to  deal  both  with  people  ol 
our  own  race  and  with  the  land  now  called  Britain. 
Our  own  ancestors,  th<;  English,  were  still  in  theii 


in.]  CONQUESTS  OF  C&SAR.  77 

o!d  land  by  the  Elbe,  and  Caesar  never  came  nea* 
them.  But  there  were  several  Teutonic  tribes  in  north- 
eastern Gaul,  and  in  the  year  55  Caesar  crossed  into 
Germany  itself,  but  he  did  not  conquer  any  part  of  the 
land.  In  the  same  year  55,  and  again  in  54,  he  crossed 
over  into  Britain,  but  he  made  no  lasting  conquest, 
and  left  no  Roman  troops  behind  him.  Britain  was 
then  inhabited  by  a  Celtic  people,  the  Britons,  who 
gave  their  name  to  the  island,  and  whom  our  fore- 
fathers, when  they  came  into  Britain  long  after,  called 
the  Welsh  or  strangers.  Both  the  German  and  the 
British  expeditions  were  made  rather  to  show  the 
power  of  Rome  than  to  make  conquests  which  it 
would  have  been  hard  to  keep.  The  Rhine  thus 
became  the  boundary  of  the  Roman  province  of 
Gaul ;  that  is  to  say,  the  Germans  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rhine  became  subjects  of  Rome,  along  with 
the  Iberian  and  Celtic  inhabitants  of  Gaul,  while  the 
Germans  on  the  right  bank  remained  free.  This  con- 
quest of  Gaul  by  Caesar  is  one  of  the  most  important 
events  in  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  in  some  sort 
the  beginning  of  modern  history,  as  it  brought  the 
old  world  of  southern  Europe,  of  which  Rome  was 
the  head,  into  contact  with  the  lands  and  nations 
which  were  to  play  the  greatest  part  in  later  times,  with 
Gaul,  Germany,  and  Britain. 

33.  The  Civil  War  of  Pompeius  and 
Caesar. — Caesar  had  been  all  this  time  winning 
fame  and  power  in  Gaul,  in  order  to  make  himselt 
master  of  his  country.  Things  got  into  great  con- 
fusion while  he  was  away,  which  was  just  what  he 
wanted.  At  last,  in  the  year  49,  Caesar  openly  rebelled, 
and  another  Civil  War  now  began,  in  which  Pompeius 
commanded  the  armies  which  were  faithful  to  the 
Commonwealth.  But  now  that  the  Roman  dominion 
took  in  so  large  a  part  of  the  world,  a  civil  war  be- 
tween Romans  was  not  necessarily  fought  in  Italy. 
The  power  of  Pomp eius  lay  chiefly  in  the  lands  east 


78  THE  ROMAN  COMMONWEALTH.        [CHA*. 

of  the  Hadriatic  ;  so,  while  he  was  gathering  his 
forces  there,  Caesar  marched  to  Rome  and  got  tht 
People  to  make  him,  first  Dictator,  and  then  Consul 
for  the  year  48.  Then  he  crossed  over  to  Epeiros, 
and  presently  defeated  the  army  of  Pompeius  and 
the  Senate  at  Pharsalos  in  Thessaly.  Pompeius  was 
soon  after  murdered  in  Egypt,  and  in  about  three 
years'  time  Caesar  was  able  to  overcome  all  who  with- 
stood him  in  Africa,  Spain  and  elsewhere.  The  battle 
of  Pharsalos  is  one  of  the  most  important  battles  in 
history,  as  it  really  ended  the  Roman  Commonwealth, 
and  began  the  Roman  Empire,  which  we  may  almost 
say  has  gone  on  ever  since.  The  forms  of  the  Com- 
monwealth lasted  long  after,  but  from  this  time  the 
Roman  world  always  had  a  master.  Caesar  was  now 
master  of  the  Roman  dominions,  and  was  made  Dic- 
tator for  life.  He  was  also  called  Impcrator  (the  word 
which  is  cut  short  into  Emperor\  a  title  which  in 
some  sort  belonged  to  every  Roman  general,  but 
which  Csesar  was  allowed  to  use  in  a  special  way.  But 
he  was  not  satisfied  with  being  Dictator  and  Impe- 
rator  ;  he  wished  to  be  King  and  to  wear  a  diadern. 
This  was  more  than  men  could  bear  ;  so  many  of 
the  senators,  among  whom  the  chief  were  Caius 
Cassias  and  Marcus  Junius  Brutus,  conspired  and 
slew  him  in  the  senate-house  (March  i5th,  B.C.  44). 
Caesar  was  a  Tyrant ;  he  had  overthrown  the  freedom 
of  his  country  and  had  seized  a  power  beyond  the 
laws.  But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  for  the 
provinces  it  was  a  distinct  gain  to  get  one  master 
instead  of  many.  The  real  lesson  to  be  learned  from 
the  overthrow  of  the  Roman  Commonwealth  is  that 
states  which  boast  themselves  of  their  own  freedom 
should  not  hold  other  states  in  bondage. 

34.  The  Second  Civil  War. — After  the  death 
of  Caesar  followed  a  time  of  great  confusion,  lasting 
lor  thirteen  years.  Brutus  and  Cassius,  who  had  killed 
Csesar,  stood  up  for  the  Commonwealth,  and  there  w«u 


in.]  BEGINNING  OF  THE  EMPIRE.  75 

a  war  between  them  and  the  partizans  of  Caesar  undei 
Marcus  Antonius,  one  of  Caesar's  officers,  and  Caesar's 
great-nephew,  Caius  Octavius.  Caesar  had  adopted 
Octavius  as  his  son ;  so  his  name  became  Caius  Julius 
Cozsar  Octavianus.  These  two,  along  with  Marcus 
sfLmilius  Lepidus,  formed  what  was  called  a  Triumviratt 
for  settling  the  affairs  of  the  Commonwealth.  Mean- 
while Brutus  and  Cassius,  like  Pompeius,  had  gone  to 
the  East,  and  in  42  the  battle  of  Philippi  in  Macedonia 
was  fought  between  them  and  the  Triumvirs,  and 
the  hopes  of  the  party  of  the  Commonwealth  were 
crushed.  Presently  Antonius  professed  to  make  war 
upon  the  Parthians,  but  he  did  nothing  great,  for  he 
was  utterly  bewitched  by  Kleopatra,  Queen  of  Egypt, 
the  last  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies.  War  pre- 
sently followed  between  Caesar  and  Antonius,  and 
Antonius  and  Kleopatra  were  altogether  defeated  in  a 
sea-fight  at  Aktion,  near  Ambrakia,  on  the  west  coast 
of  Greece  (31).  Antonius  and  Kleopatra  presently 
killed  themselves,  and  Egypt  became  a  Roman  pro- 
vince. All  the  lands  round  the  Mediterranean  had 
now  come  under  the  Roman  dominion,  though  here 
and  there  there  were  principalities  and  commonwealths 
which  had  not  been  formally  made  into  provinces. 

35.  The  Beginning  of  the  Empire. — There 
was  now  no  one  left  to  withstand  Caesar,  and  the 
Senate  and  People  gradually  voted  him  one  honour 
and  office  after  another,  which  made  him  practically 
master  of  the  state,  though  the  outward  forms  of  the 
Commonwealth  went  on  as  before.  But  he  was  never 
called  King,  or  even  Dictator,  like  his  uncle,  for  that 
title  had  become  almost  as  hateful  as  that  of  King. 
But  the  new  title  of  Augustus  was  voted  to  him,  and 
all  who  succeeded  him  in  his  puwer  called  themselves 
Ccesar  and  Augustus.  ,  But  he  is  specially  known  as 
Augustus  Ccesar.  This  is  the  beginning  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  for,  of  the  various  titles  borne  by 
Augustus  and  his  successors,  that  of  Emperor  (Impe 


8o  THE  HEATHEN  EMPIRE,  [CHAP 

rator)  or  chief  of  the  array  was  the  one  which  prevailed 
in  the  end.  The  rest  of  the  history  of  Europe  is  the  , 
history  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  one  shape  or  another, 
and  we  shall  see  that  the  title  of  Roman  Emperor  went 
on  almost  to  our  own  times.  The  first  Emperor  then 
was  Caius  Julius  Caesar  Octavianus,  and  we  may 
count  the  Empire  as  beginning  in  B.C.  27,  when  he 
received  the  title  of  Augustus.  The  last  Emperor  was 
Francis,  King  of  Germany,  who  gave  up  the  Empire 
in  A.D.  1806.  The  differences  between  the  early  and 
the-  later  Emperors  we  shall  see  as  we  go  on,  but  there 
was  a  continuous  succession  between  them  without 
any  break. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    HEATHEN    EMPIRE. 

Extent  of  the  Roman  Empire  ;  distinction  of  the  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Oriental  Provinces  (i) — nature  of  the 
Roman  dominions  ;  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Empire 
gradually  become  Romans  (2) — reign  of  Augustus;  steal- 
thy introduction  of  Monarchy  (3) — wars  with  the  Ger- 
mans; victory  of  Armiimis  (3) — Roman  Literature  and 
Art  '(4) — the  Claudian  Emperors ;  conquest  of  Britain  ; 
the  Empire  passes  from  the  Ccesarian  family  (5) — the 
Flavian  Emperors  ;  wars  with  the  Jews,  tiatavians, 
and  Dacians  (6) — the  Good  Emperors ;  origin  of  the 
Rinnan  Law  (7) — Emperors  chosen  by  the  army;  dis- 
tinction of  Romans  and  Barbarians ;  the  lllyrian 
Emperors  (8) — tlie  Tyrants  (9) — restoration  of  the 
•:gdom  of  Persia ;  -wars  between  Persia  and  Rome 
(10) — wars  with  the  Teutonic  nations;  first  appearance 
of  the  Goths  (10) — origin  of  Christianity ;  its  advance 
and  persecutions  (i  i) — reign  of  Diocletian  ;  his  division 
of  the  Empire  (12) — last  persecution  of  the  Christians; 
Constantine embraces  Christianity  (i 2) — Summary (\$. 

i.    Extent  of  the  Roman  Empire. — At  the 
time    when    the    government    of   Rome  practically 


W.]  EXTENT  OF  THE  EMPIRE.  81 

changed  from  a  common  wealth  •.  to  a  monarchy,  the 
Roman  power  had  spread  over  all  the  lands  which 
could  be  looked  on  as  forming  the  civilized  world. 
These  lands  fall  naturally  under  three  heads,  the 
distinction  between  which  will  be  found  to  be  of 
great  importance  as  we  go  on.  In  the  Western 
provinces,  as  Gaul  and  Spain,  to  which  we  may  add 
Africa,  where  Carthage  had  been  restored  by  Caesar 
as  a  Roman  colony,  the  Romans  appeared,  not  only 
as  a  conquering,  but  as  a  civilizing  people.  Roman 
customs  and  the  use  of  the  Latin  language  took  firm 
root ;  the  whole  civilization  of  these  lands'  became 
Roman,  and  the  native  tongues  and  customs  lived  on 
only  in  out-of-the-way  corners,  such  as  the  mountain 
land  of  the  Basques  in  Spain  and  southern  Gaul. 
But  in  Greece,  and  in  those  lands  whither  the  Greek 
speech  and  customs  had  been  carried  bv  Greek 
colonists  or  by  Macedonian  conquerors,  the  Greek 
civilization,  the  older  and  the  higher  of  the  two,  still 
held  its  ground.  These  lands  became  politically 
Roman,  but  they  remained  socially  and  intellectually 
Greek,  and  Greek  still  went  on  as  the  language  of 
literature  and  poiite  life.  But  in  the  further  East,  in 
the  lands  beyond  Mount  Tauros,  in  Syria  and  Egypt, 
though  those  lands  had  been  ruled  by  Macedonian 
Kings,  and  though  great  Greek  cities  had  arisen  as 
their  capitals,  the  native  languages  and  religions  and 
general  habit  of  thought  never  died  out,  nor  were  they 
driven,  as  in  the  West,  into  out-of-the-way  corners. 
It  is  only  in  a  very  superficial  sense  that  these  lands 
can  be  said  to  have  ever  become  either  Greek  or 
Roman.  This  distinction  between  what  we  may  call 
the  Latin,,  the  Greek,  and  the  Oriental  provinces  must 
be  carefully  borne  in  mind  throughout.  It  was  not  a 
distinction  made  by  law,  but  it  was  one  which  had 
most  important  practical  results.  Speaking  roughly, 
the  Roman  dominion  was  bounded  by  the  Rhine,  the 
Danube,  the  Euphrates,  and  the  great  deserts  of 


8a  THE  HEA  Til  EX  EMPIRE.  [CHAP. 

Africa.  It  did  not  reach  quite  so  far  as  this  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  Empire,  but  the  few  outlying 
lands  which  were  needed  to  bring  it  to  those  bound- 
aries were  added  during  the  reigns  of  Augustus  and 
the  other  earlier  Emperors.  And,  within  those  bound- 
aries, we  may  look  on  the  Latin  provinces  as  reaching 
from  the  Ocean  to  the  Hadriatic,  the  Greek  as  reach- 
ing from  the  Hadriatic  to  Mount  Tauros,  and  the 
Oriental  as  taking  in  the  lands  beyond. 

2.  Nature  of  the  Roman  Dominion. — It  must 
always  be  remembered  that  the  establishment  of  the 
Roman  Empire  was  not  a  formal  revolution.     The  old 
republican  forms  went  on  in  Rome,  and  the  relations 
between   the  ruling  city  and  the  allied  and  subject 
states  were  in  no  way  changed.     But  as  the  Empire, 
as  the  power  of  one  man,  became  step  by  step  more 
firmly  established,  the  tendency  was  to  break  down 
the  old  distinctions.     Particular  families,  and  some- 
times whole  cities  and  regions,  were  admitted  to  the 
Roman  franchise,  till  at  last  all  the  free  inhabitants  of 
the    Empire   were  declared   to   be  Roman    citizens. 
From  this  time  all  the  subjects  of  the  Empire  were 
legally  equal,  and  all  who  spoke  either  Latin  or  Greek 
began    to    look    on    themselves   as    Romans.      The 
Empire,  which  had  once  been  a  collection  of  cities 
and  provinces  in  different  degrees  of  subjection  to  one 
ruling  city,  gradually  changed  into  a  vast  dominion, 
all  the  inhabitants  of  which  were  alike  fellow-subjects 
of  the  Emperor.     Rome,  instead  of  being  the  ruling 
city,  thus  became  merely  the  capital  or  seat  of  govern- 
ment.    And  we  shall  see  that,  as  time  went  on,  Rome 
ceased  even  to  be  the  seat  of  government,  and  other 
cities  took  its  place. 

3.  The    Reign   of  Augustus. — Counting    the 
reign  of  Augustus  to  begin  when  he  received  that  new 
and  special  title,  it  lasted  forty-one  years,  from  B.C.  27 
to  A.D.  14.     During  all  that  time  he  was  practically 
master  of  Rome  and  of  the  whole  Empire.     He  be 


IV.]  REIGN  OF  AUGUSTUS.  83 

came  so  by  the  means  of  uniting  various  great  offices 
in  his  own  person,  and  by  having  special  grants  of 
authority  made  to  him  by  the  Senate  for  periods  of 
ten  years.  Men  thus  became  gradually  used  to  the 
rule  of  one  man,  and,  though  all  the  old  magistracies 
and  the  old  forms  went  on,  they  gradually  sank  into 
mere  forms.  The  legions  were  kept  up  as  a  standing 
army,  and  the  government  gradually  became  a  mili- 
tary monarchy.  Augustus  however  never  took  on 
himself  anything  of  the  pomp  of  royalty,  but  behaved 
simply  as  the  first  magistrate  of  the  commonwealth. 
He  did  not  seek  to  make  any  great  conquests  ;  still 
several  wars,  both  successful  and  unsuccessful,  were 
carried  on  during  his  reign.  The  small  part  of  Spain 
which  remained  independent  was  subdued,  and  the 
lands  between  the  Alps  and  the  Danube  were  added 
to  the  Empire.  There  were  also  wars  at  this  time 
which  more  concern  us,  for  the  two  Claudii,  the 
stepsons  of  Augustus,  first  Drusus  and  then  Tiberius, 
waged  long  wars  with  the  Germans  beyond  the  Rhine, 
and  it  was  hoped  that  Germany  would  be  subdued 
as  well  as  Gaul.  Had  this  happened,  the  future 
history  of  the  world  must  have  been  utterly  changed. 
And  everyone  who  speaks  English  or  any  other 
Teutonic  tongue  ought  to  honour  the  name  of  the 
German  hero  Arminius,  who  in  A.D.  9  cut  off  three 
Roman  legions  under  Publius  Qiiindilius  Icarus,  and 
stopped  all  fear  of  Germany  becoming  a  Roman 
province.  Drusus  had  in  some  of  his  wars  reached 
the  Elbe',  so  that  it  is  quite  likely  that  he  may  have 
come  across  some  of  our  own  forefathers. 

4.  Roman  Literature  and  Art. — The  reign  of 
Augustuses  also  famous  as  the  time  when  many  of  the 
best-known  Latin  writers  lived.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  Latin  language  which  at  all  answers  to  the  native 
literature  of  Greece.  Before  the  Punic  wars  we  have 
only  a  few  scraps.  From  that  time  the  existing  Latin 
literature  begins.  But  the  Latin  writers,  especial: y 


84  THE  hEATHEN  EMPIRE.  [CHAF. 

the  poets,  were  too  much  given  to  imitation  of  Greek 
models  to  produce  anything  at  all  equal  to  them. 
But  there  were  many  great  Latin  writers  in  the  time  oi 
the  Civil  Wars,  as  Cicero  and  Caesar,  who  were  so 
famous  in  other  ways,  and  the  poets  Lucretius  and 
Catullus.  But  the  Augustan  Age,  as  it  is  called, 
became  specially  famous  for  the  number  of  poets,  such 
as  the  well-known  names  of  Virgil,  Horace,  and  Oi'id, 
who  lived  at  that  time,  and  sang  the  praises  of 
Augustus,  and  of  their  great  patron,  his  minister 
Caius  Cilnius  Macenas.  Livy  also  ( Titus  Livius),  the 
historian  of  Rome,  lived  at  this  time.  But  both  he 
and  the  greatest  of  the  Augustan  poets  had  grown  up 
under  the  Commonwealth.  Horace,  for  instance, 
(Quintus  Horatius  Flaccus),  had  fought  against 
Augustus  at  Philippi,  having  been  an  officer  in  the 
army  of  Brutus  and  Cassius.  The  most  truly  original 
Latin  writers,  the  satirist  Juveiial  and  the  historian 
Tacitus,  to  whom  we  may  add  the  great  Roman 
lawyers,  belong  to  a  later  time.  Of  all  branches  of 
knowledge  and  literature,  law  is  the  only  one  in  which 
the  Romans  were  thoroughly  original,  and  it  is  that 
by  means  of  which  they  did  most  to  influence  other 
lands  and  times.  The  art  of  Rome  is  very  like  her 
literature.  The  Romans  of  the  Augustan  age  imitated 
the  Greeks  in  their  buildings  and  in  their  works  of  art 
generally,  and  it  was  only  gradually  that  a  really 
genuine  and  national  form  of  Roman  architecture  was 
worked  out. 

5.  The  Claudian  Emperors. — As  Rome  was 
not  legally  a  monarchy,  it  is  plain  that  the  supreme 
power  could  not  pass  at  the  will  of  the  last  Emperor. 
But  the  stepson  of  Augustus,  Tiberius  Claudius  Nero, 
whom  he  had  adopted,  and  who  therefore  became  his 
son  according  to  Roman  law,  succeeded  without  any 
difficulty,  and  the  Senate  voted  him  all  the  honours  which 
Augustus  had  held.  The  Umpire  thus  passed  into  a 
new  tamily,  that  of  the  Claudii.  But,  according  to  th< 


IV.]  THE  CLAUDIAN  EMPERORS.  85 

law  of  adoption,  they  counted  as  Casars,  and  the 
Caesars  became  a  kind  of  artificial  family,  for  no 
Emperor  at  this  time  was  ever  succeeded  by  his  own 
son.  Four  Emperors  reigned  by  this  kind  of  succes- 
sion, Tiberius,  Caius,  Claudius,  and  Nero.  All  of 
these  were  Caesars  by  adoption,  though  not  by  blood, 
and  Caius,  Claudius,  and  Nero  were  really  descended 
from  Augustus  in  the  female  line.  The  first  of  these 
four,  Tiberius,  reigned  from  A.D.  14  to  A.D.  37.  The 
Empire  was  on  the  whole  prosperous  in  his  time ; 
but  he  did  many  jealous  and  cruel  things,  causing  the 
death  of  all  of  whom  he  was  in  any  way  afraid,  espe- 
cially of  his  nephew  Germanicus,  the  son  of  Drusus, 
and  Germanicus'  wife,  Agrippina.  Germanicus  took 
his  name  from  his  wars  in  Germany,  where  he  advanced 
as  far  as  the  Weser,  but  he  was  happily  called  back  by 
the  jealousy  of  Tiberius.  Caius,  commonly  called 
Caligula^  the  son  of  Germanicus,  succeeded  Tiberius, 
and  reigned  four  years,  from  37  to  41.  He  seems  to 
have  been  quite  mad,  and  did  the  wildest  and  wicked- 
est things  in  every  way,  and  at  last  he  was  killed  by 
some  of  his  officers.  The  soldiers  then  chose  Claudius, 
the  brother  of  Germanicus  and  uncle  of  Caius,  and 
the  Senate  had  to  confirm  their  choice.  This  was  the 
first  time  that  an  Emperor  was  chosen  by  the  army. 
Claudius  was  a  well-meaning  man,  but  he  was  con- 
stantly led  astray  by  his  wives  and  favourites.  It 
was  in  his  time  that  the  Roman  conquest  of  Britain 
began,  and  Claudius  himself  went  for  a  short  time 
into  Britain  in  the  year  43.  He  reigned  till  54, 
when  he  was  poisoned  by  his  last  wife  Agrippina, 
who  was  the  daughter  of  Germanicus  and  his  own 
niece.  She  had  made  him  adopt  her  son  Nero,  who 
then  succeeded,  and  reigned  well  for  a  while,  but 
gradually  became  the  worst  of  the  whole  family  for 
every  form  of  vice  and  cruelty.  At  last  the  soldiers 
in  the  distant  provinces  began  to  rebel,  aid  Nero 
wis  deposed  by  a  vote  of  the  Senate;  and  died  by  hi* 


86  THE  Iff. A  THEN  l-.MPJKK.  [CHA» 

own  hand  in  the  year  68.  The  Empire  now  passed 
quite  away  from  the  Caesarean  family ;  those  who 
followed  no  longer  pretended  to  belong  to  that 
family,  even  by  adoption  ;  yet  all  who  succeeded  to 
the  Empire  still  went  on  calling  themselves  Casar 
and  Augustus  to  the  very  end. 

6.  The  Flavian  Emperors. — A  time  of  con- 
fusion followed  on  the  death  of  Nero.  The  armies 
in  various  parts  of  the  Empire  chose  their  own 
generals  to  be  Emperors,  and  several  of  them 
obtained  possession  of  Rome,  and  were  acknow- 
ledged by  the  Senate  and  'People  for  a  little  while. 
Thus  Gatta,  Otho,  Vitdlius,  succeeded  one  another 
very  quickly,  each  reigning  a  little  time  and  then  being 
killed.  At  last,  in  the  year  70,  a  more  permanent 
power  was  established  by  Titus  Flavius  Vespasianus, 
who  kept  the  Empire  till  his  own  death  in  79,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  sons  Titus  and  Doinitian  in 
succession,  the  first  time  that  an  Emperor  had  been 
succeeded  by  his  own  son.  Vespasian  made  a  much 
better  ruler  than  any  of  the  Emperors  who  had  gone 
before  him,  and  a  long  time  of  comparative  peace  and 
good  government  now  began.  In  Vespasian's  time  the 
/eu's,  who  had  rebelled  in  the  time  of  Nero,  were 
subdued  by  his  son  Titus,  and  Jerusalem  was  destroyed. 
And  during  the  times  of  confusion,  the  Batavians,  a 
people  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine,  very  nearly  akin 
to  ourselves,  had  revolted  and  tried  to  set  up  an 
empire  of  their  own  in  Gaul.  This  movement  too 
was  put  down  about  the  same  time  as  that  of  the  Jews, 
The  power  of  Vespasian  and  his  family  was  now  firmly 
established,  but  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  Flavian 
Emperors  did  not,  like  the  Julian  and  Claudian,  spring 
from  any  of  the  great  and  ancient  families  of  Rome. 
This  is  a  sign  of  the  way  in  which  old  distinctions 
were  breaking  down.  Titus  reigned  but  two  years  after 
the  death  of  his  father  ;  he  was  called  the  Delight  oj 
Mankind,  but  his  brothei  Doinitian,  who  succeeded 


nr.l  THE  GOOD  EMPERORS.  87 

him,  and  who  professed  to  be  a  careful  and  severe 
assertor  of  the  laws,  gradually  became  as  great  a  tyrant 
as  any  of  the  Claudii.  In  his  time  the  conquest  of 
Britain  was  completed  by  Agncola,  and  Rome  found  a 
new  enemy  to  strive  against  in  the  Dacians  beyond  the 
Danube.  Domitian  was  killed  in  96,  and  the  Flavian 
dynasty  ended  with  him. 

7.  The  Good  Emperors. — We  now  come  to  a 
time  which  in  some  sort  continues  the  Flavian 
dynasty.  The  Roman  world  had  now  got  thoroughly 
used  to  the  rule  of  a  single  man,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  provinces  were  better  off  under  the 
rule  of  the  Emperors  than  they  had  been  under  the 
Commonwealth.  And,  from  the  accession  of  Vespasian 
onwards,  there  was  a  great  feeling  in  favour  of  legal 
and  regular  government,  of  strict  observance  of  the 
law  and  of  respect  for  the  authority  of  the  Senate.  It 
was  about  this  time  that  Law  began  to  be  a  matter  of 
special  study,  and  that  the  great  Roman  lawyers  began 
to  put  together  that  system  of  Roman  Law  known  as 
the  Civil  Law,  which  has  been  the  groundwork  of  the 
law  of  most  parts  of  Western  Europe  except  England. 
Several  famous  writers,  both  in  Greek  and  Latin,  flour- 
ished at  this  time,  especially  the  great  historian  Tacitus. 
The  Emperors  of  this  time,  who  are  often  called  spe- 
cially the  Good  Emperors,  formed  a  kind  of  artificial 
family,  like  that  of  the  first  Caesars,  each  man  being 
succeeded,  not  by  his  real  son,  but  by  one  whom  he 
had  adopted.  Five  thus  reigned  in  order,  'Nerva  fron 
96  to  98,  Trajan  from  98  to  117,  Hadrian  from  u; 
to  138,  Antoninus  Pius  from  138  to  161,  and  Marcus 
Aurelius  from  161  to  180.  Of  these  Trajan  was  the 
first  Emperor  who  was  born  out  of  Italy,  being  a  native 
ofSpain.  It  was  in  his  time  that  the  Empire  reached  its 
greatest  extent.  He  had  wars  with  the  Parthians, 
from  whom  he  won  several  provinces  in  the  East,  so 
that  for  a  moment  the  Empire  reached  the  Caspian 
Sea.  But  this  was  only  for  a  moment,  for  these 


88  THE  HE  A  THEN  EMPIRE.  [CHAP. 

Eastern  conquests  were  at  once  given  up  by  Trajan's 
successor  Hadrian.  And  in  Europe  also  Trajan  won 
the  province  of  Dacia  beyond  the  Danube.  But  this 
too,  though  it  was  kept  longer  than  the  conquests  in 
the  East,  was  not  a  really  lasting  possession.  From 
this  time  the  Romans  made  no  more  great  conquests, 
for  they  commonly  found  that  they  had  enough  to  do  to 
defend  their  own  frontiers.  Thus  Marcus  had  to  wage 
wars  with  the  Germans  along  the  Danube.  He  was  a 
philosopher,  who  left  some  excellent  moral  writings 
behind  him.  Witn  him  the  time  of  the  Good  Emperors 
ended.  For  he  was  succeeded  by  Commodus,  who 
was  his  own  son,  and  not  merely  a  son  by  adop- 
tion. He  was  the  first  Emperor  who  was  born  during 
the  reign  of  his  father.  But  he  proved  very  unlike  his 
father,  being,  for  vice  and  cruelty,  one  of  the  worst 
princes  that  ever  reigned,  and  was  at  last  murdered 
in  192. 

8.  Emperors  chosen  by  the  Army. — A  time 
now  followed,  lasting  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  from 
192  to  285,  during  which  there  is  no  need  to  go 
through  all  the  Emperors  by  name.  Many  of  them 
reigned  only  a  very  short  time.  The  soldiers  set  up 
and  slew  Emperors  as  they  chose,  and  the  Senate  was 
obliged  to  make  the  usual  votes  in  favour  of  those 
who  were  thus  set  up.  It  was  quite  a  rare  thing  for 
the  Empire  to  pass  from  father  to  son,  or  by  fair 
election  by  the  Senate,  or  in  any  other  peaceful  and 
lawful  way.  For  a  little  while  there  was  an  attempt  to 
keep  up  a  dynasty  or  succession  of  Emperors  in  the 
same  family,  or  at  least  in  the  same  name;  for  Septimius 
Sez>erus,  who  reigned  from  193  to  211,  and  his  sons 
called  themselves  Antoninus,  though  it  does  not  seem 
that  they  were  descended  from,  or  even  adopted  by, 
any  of  the  Emperors  of  that  name.  Under  Severus 
the  government  became  still  more  military  than  it  had 
been  before.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  wicked  son 
Antoninus,  who  was  commonly  called  Caratalla 


Long.  East   10    from  Groeuwic  i          20 


THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE 

AT  ITS  GREATEST  EXTENT  v 

The  Roman  Dominions  at  the  Death  of  Cwsan 
The  Empire  under  Trajan ( 


Flak  &  See.N.,  f 


nr.l  THE  TYRANTS.  gf 

And,  after  he  was  murdered  in  217,  two  Syrian  youths, 
Elagabalus  and  Alexander  Severus,  who  were  said  to 
be  Caracalla's  sons,  were  set  up  in  succession,  who 
both  took  the  names  of  Aurelius  and  Antoninus.  Of 
these  Elagabalus  was  one  of  the  worst,  and  Alexandei 
one  of  the  best,  of  the  Emperors.  In  the  time  of 
Caracalla  the  old  distinctions  of  Romans,  Latins, 
Italians,  and  Provincials  were  quite  wiped  out.  Ro- 
man citizenship  was  now  given  to  all  the  free  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Empire,  so  that  a  man  in  Britain  or 
Greece  or  anywhere  else  called  himself  a  Roman,  as  in 
the  East  men  have  done  ever  since.  It  therefore  hap- 
pened that  many  of  the  best  and  bravest  Emperors, 
especially  towards  the  end  of  this  time,  were  what 
would  before  have  been  called  Barbarians.  That 
word  now  meant  those  who  were  altogether  outside  the 
Empire.  Many  of  the  best  of  these  later  Emperors 
came  from  Iliyria.  Decius,  Claudius,  Aurdian,  and 
others,  brave  and  wise  men  who  rose  by  their  merits, 
followed  one  another  in  swift  succession,  and  had 
much  fighting  with  the  different  enemies  of  Rome. 
At  last  one  of  the  greatest  of  their  number  made  a 
complete  change'  in  the  constitution  of  the  Empire, 
which  we  must  presently  speak  of. 

9.  The  Tyrants. — While  Emperors  were  thus  set 
up  and  put  down  by  the  soldiers,  it  often  happened 
that  there  were  several  Emperors  or  claimants  of  the 
Empire  at  once ;  that  is  to  say,  the  armies  in  different 
parts  of  the  Empire  had  each  set  up  its  own  general 
to  be  Emperor.  And  towards  the  end  of  this  period 
it  often  happened  that  one  of  these  pretenders  con- 
trived to  keep  some  pan  of  the  Empire  for  several 
years,  so  that  there  were  Emperors  reigning  in  Gaul 
or  Britain  or  some  other  province  or  provinces  only. 
But  these  local  Emperors  must  not  be  mistaken  for 
national,  rulers  of  the  provinces  where  they  reigned  ; 
they  claimed  to  be  Roman  Emperors,  and  they  o* 
course  aimed  at  getting  the  whole  Empire,  if  they 


00  THE  HEATHEN  EMPIRE.  [CHAP 

could.  Sometimes  the  reigning  Emperor  found  il 
convenient  to  acknowledge  them  as  colleagues ;  if 
they  were  unsuccessful,  they  were  called  Tyrants.  As 
in  old  Greece  a  Tyrant  had  meant  a  man  who  unlaw- 
fully seized  on  kingly  power  in  a  commonwealth,  so 
now  it  meant  a  man  who  called  himself  Emperor,  but 
who  was  held  not  to  have  a  lawful  right  to  the  title 
In  the  time  of  Gallienus,  who  reigned  from  260  to  268, 
the  whole  Empire  was  split  to  pieces  among  various 
pretenders  of  this  kind.  One  of  these  should  be 
specially  noticed,  because  it  is  the  only  case  among 
all  these  divisions  of  anything  like  a  real  national 
state  being  founded.  This  was  at  Palmyra  in  Syria, 
where  one  Odenathus  was  acknowledged  as  Emperor, 
and  after  him  his  wife  Zcncbia,  one  of  the  most  won- 
derful women  in  history,  reigned  as  Queen  of  the  East. 
But  this  new  kingdom  was  put  down  by  Aurelian,  one 
of  the  ablest  of  the  Illyrian  Emperors,  in  271. 

10.  Wars  with  the  Persians  and  Germans. 
— We  have  seen  that  a  new  state  of  things  begins  after 
the  reign  of  Trajan,  for  from  that  time  the  Romans  had 
to  fight,  not  as  in  former  times  to  make  new  conquests, 
but  to  keep  what  they  had  got  already.  The  wars 
went  on  along  the  Eastern  frontier,  with  the  Parthians 
as  long  as  their  power  lasted,  and  after  that  with  a  new 
enemy  who  stepped  into  their  place.  These  were  the 
real  old  Persians,  who  had  been  kept  in  bondage  ever 
since  the  time  of  Alexander,  but  who  rose  up  about  the 
year  226  and  founded  a  new  Persian  kingdom.  Their 
first  king  was  Ardeshir  or  Artaxerxes,  whose  descend- 
ants, called  the  SassaniJcB,  ruled  over  Persia  more 
than  four  hundred  years.  Many  of  the  Emperors  had 
to  wage  war  with  the  Persians,  and  among  them 
Alexander  Severus  and  Valerian,  the  father  of  Gallienus, 
who  reigned  from  253  to  260.  He  was  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Persians,  and  died  in  captivity.  At  a  later 
time  the  Romans  gained  territory  from  the  Persians 
and  then  lost  it  again,  and  so  things  went  on  for  somr 


iv.]          THE  GROWTH  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  91 

ages ;  Rome  and  Persia  were  always  fighthg  and 
making  small  conquests  from  one  another,  but,  till  a 
much  later  time,  neither  dealt  any  real  blow  at  the  main 
strength  of  the  other.  But  the  wars  which  the  Romans 
had  to  wage  in  the  West  were  of  quite  another  kind. 
They  have  a  more  special  interest  for  us,  because  they 
were  wars  with  our  own  kinsfolk,  and  they  also  mark 
one  of  the  greatest  stages  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
For  it  was  now  that  the  race  came  to  the  front 
which  was  to  take  the  place  which  had  been  held,  first 
by  the  Greeks  and  then  by  the  Romans,  as  the  leading 
race  of  the  world.  From  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius 
onwards  the  Teutonic  nations  began  really  to  threaten 
the  Empire.  The  chief  business  of  the  Roman  armies 
now  was  to  drive  the  Germans  back ;  and,  if  they  made 
any  conquests,  it  was  now  merely  winning  back  lands 
which  had  been  lost.  We  now  first  hear  of  the  famous 
nation  of  the  Goths,  a  people  whose  speech  was  very 
nearly  akin  to  our  own,  and  also  of  the  Franks,  whose 
name  has  in  later  history  been  more  famous  still.  The 
great  Illyrian  Emperors  had  much  to  do  in  fighting 
both  with  the  Persians  and  with  the  Goths  and  other 
Teutonic  people.  And  Claudius,  who  reigned  before 
Aurelian  from  268  to  270,  won  a  great  victory  over 
the  Goths,  who  for  some  time  afterwards  kept  more 
quiet.  But  Aurelian  thought  it  wise  to  give  up  Trajan's 
province  of  Dacia,  so  that  the  Danube  again  became 
the  boundary.  We  now  come  to  a  time  of  great 
changes  in  the  internal  state  of  the  Empire. 

ii.  The  Growth  of  Christianity.— All  this 
while,  almost  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  Empire,  a 
new  religion  had  been  growing  up  in  the  world.  Our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  born  in  the  reign  of  Augustus  and 
was  crucified  in  the  reigr.  of  Tiberius.  Ever  since 
that  time  Christianity  had  been  gradually  preached  in 
most  parts  of  the  Empire,  and  the  Christians  were 
now  a  large  and  important  body.  The  Christians  were 
often  cruelly  persecuted,  but  it  should  be  carefully 


93  THE  HEATH5N  EMPIRE.  'CHAP, 

noticed  that,  as  a  rule,  it  was  not  the  worst  Emperors 
who  most  persecuted  them.  The  truth  is  'hat  the 
heathen  religion  of  ancient  Rome  was  looked  on  as 
part  of  the  constitution  of  the  state.  Oiher  Gods 
might  be  worshipped,  if  only  the  old  Gods  did  not 
lose  their  worship  ;  but  a  religion  which  taught  that  the 
Gods  of  Rome  and  of  all  other  nations  were  alike 
false,  and  which  strove  to  win  over  all  mankind  to  that 
belief,  was  looked  on  as  dangerous  to  the  Empire. 
Those  Emperors  therefore  who  were  most  zealous  to 
keep  up  the  old  laws  and  customs  of  Rome  were  com- 
monly the  most  anxious  to  put  down  the  new  faith,  and 
we  therefore  find  that  the  Christians  really  suffered 
most  under  good  and  reforming  princes  like  Trajan 
and  Marcus  Aurelius.  Still  the  Church  constantly 
advanced  and  made  converts,  for  men  had  now  but 
little  real  faith  in  the  old  Gods,  and  their  worship  was 
mainly  kept  up  as  a  matter  of  state  policy.  And 
Christianity  also  had  no  small  influence  even  on  those 
who  did  not  accept  it  as  a  religion.  A  higher  standard 
of  morals  and  higher  notions  of  the  divine  nature 
became  common  even  among  the  heathens,  and  many 
a  philosopher  who  professed  to  hate  and  despise 
Christianity  was  a  better  man  for  Christianity  having 
been  preached.  At  last  it  became  plain  that  a  deadly 
struggle  must  come  between  the  old  faith  and  the  new. 
Those  who  held  that  the  greatness  and  glory  of  Rome 
were  bound  up  with  the  worship  of  the  old  Gods  of 
Rome  saw  that  the  time  was  come  when  a  stand  must 
be  made.  The  Christians  were  now  grown  so  powei- 
ful  that  several  of  the  later  Emperors,  especially  Dcciu* 
and  Valerian,  looked  on  them  as  dangerous  to  the 
state,  and  severe  persecutions  went  on  during  their 
reigns.  After  that  time,  there  was  a  lull ;  the  Christians 
were  not  molested  for  a  long  time,  and  their  doctrine 
spread  among  all  classes  of  people  everywhere.  At 
last,  at  the  time  which  we  have  now  reached,  among 
many  important  changes,  came  the  last  and  greatest 
persecution. 


iv. 1       DIOCLETIAN  AND  HIS  SUCCESSORS.        93 

12.  Diocletian  and  his  Successors. — During 
this  time  the  notion  of  the  Roman  Commonwealth.) 
the  forms  of  which  had  been  so  carefully  kept  up  under 
the  earlier  Emperors,  had  almost  wholly  died  out. 
The  Empire  had  become  a  military  monarchy,  in  which 
the  power  of  the  prince  rested  mainly  on  the  support 
of  his  soldiers.  And  another  change  gradually  hap- 
pened. All  the  inhabitants  of  the  Empire  were  now 
equally  Romans,  and  the  Emperors  had  to  move  about 
wherever  the  needs  of  constant  warfare  called  them. 
Italy  therefore  ceased  to  be  any  longer  distinguished 
from  the  rest  of  the  Empire,  and  even  the  importance 
of  Rome  itself,  as  the  centre  of  the  Empire,  was  greatly 
lessened.  These  great  changes,  which  had  already 
taken  place  in  fact,  were  now  formally  acknowledged. 
In  the  year  284  the  Empire  fell  to  Diocletian,  another 
of  the  able  Illyrians  of  whom  so  many  had  risen  to  the 
throne.  He  began  quite  a  new  order  of  things.  There 
were  to  be  two  Emperors,  with  the  title  of  Augustus, 
reigning  as  colleagues,  with  two  Ccesars  under  them. 
Speaking  roughly,  this  fourfold  division  answered  to 
Italy  itself  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  the  Western 
provinces  (Gaul,  Spain,  and  Britain),  the  Greek,  and  the 
Oriental  provinces.  Many  of  the  forms  of  royalty 
which  had  been  unheard  of  before  were  now  brought 
into  use,  though  even  now  no  Roman  prince  dared  to 
take  the  title  of  King,  and  the  Senate  and  Consuls  still 
went  on  in  name.  But  Rome  was  now  quite  forsaken 
as  a  dwelling-place  of  the  Emperors,  who  found  it 
better  to  live  near  the  frontiers,  whence  they  could 
keep  watch  against  the  Persians,  Germans,  and  othei 
enemies  of  the  Empire.  Thus  Diocletian  and  his  col- 
league Maximian  lived  respectively  at  Nikomedeia  in 
Asia  and  at  Milan,  while  one  of  the  Ccesars  was  com- 
monly placed  in  daul  or  Britain,  at  Tritr  or  at  York. 
In  303  Diocletian  abdicated,  and  made  his  col- 
league Maximian  abdicate  also.  But  towards  the 
end  of  their  reign  they  put  forth  a  series  of  cruel  edicts 


94  TJ/K  HEATHEN  EMPIRE.  [CHAT. 

against  the  Chiistians,  and  the  heaviest  of  all  the  per- 
secutions now  took  place.  But  the  Church  lived 
through  all  attempts  to  destroy  it,  and  its  greatest 
worldly  success  followed  soon  after  this  great  perse- 
cution. The  system  of  August!  with  Caesars  under 
them  was  not  regularly  kept  up  for  any  long  time, 
A  series  of  civil  wars  followed,  till  at  last  the  whole 
Empire  was  joined  together  again  in  the  hands  of 
Constantine  called  the  Great.  He  began  to  reign  at  York 
in  306  ;  after  that  he  reigned  at  Trier,  till  he  obtained 
the  whole  Empire  in  3 23  and  kept  it  till  1  is  death  in  337. 
He  was  the  first  Emperor  who  acknowledged  himself 
a  Christian,  and  other  important  changes  were  made  in 
his  time,  which  will  be  spoken  of  in  the  next  chapter. 
13.  Summary. — We  have  thus  gone  through  the 
history  of  heathen  Rome  both  under  the  Common- 
wealth and  under  the  Empire.  It  began  as  a  single 
city  ;  it  gradually  gained  the  dominion,  first  over  Italy, 
and  then  over  all  the  lands  round  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  and  it  gradually  admitted  its  subjects  and  allies 
to  its  own  citizenship.  When  the  government  of  a 
single  city  became  quite  unable  to  act  as  the  govern- 
ment of  the  whole  civilized  world,  all  power  gradually 
came  into  the  hands  of  one  man,  and  the  practical 
holding  of  all  power  by  one  man  gradually  changed  the 
state  into  an  avowed  monarchy.  Then,  when  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Empire  were  alike  Romans,  the  city  of 
Rome  became,  as  it  were,  lost  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  other  cities  began  to  be  seats  of  government.  At 
the  same  time  new  enemies,  namely  our  own  kinsfolk, 
were  beginning  to  threaten  the  Empire,  and  a  new 
religion,  that  which  we  ourselves  believe,  was  begin- 
ning to  supplant  the  old  religion  of  Rome.  We  have 
thus  come  to  a  time  of  very  great  and  speedy  change, 
and  to  the  first  beginnings  of  the  stSte  of  things  which 
still  goes  on  in  modern  Europe.  There  is  in  some 
things  a  greater  change  between  the  first  Emperors  and 
the  Emperors  after  Constantine  than  there  was  between 
the  old  Kings  of  Rome  and  the  first  Emperors. 


v.]  THE  EARL  V  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.  95 

CHAPTER  V. 
THE    EARLY   CHRISTIAN    EMPIRE. 

ffL'fory  of  Constantine ;  his  changes  in  the  government 
of  the  Empire  (i) — he  fixes  his  capital  at  Constantinople 
or  Neiv  Rome  (i) — re/ens  of  Constantius  and  Julian 
(l) — establishment  of  Christianity;  disputes  and  Coun- 
cils in  the  Church  (2}— forms  assumed  by  Christianity 
in  different  parts  of  the  Empire  (2) — revival  of 
paganism  unaer  Julian;  its  final  extinction  (2) — Teu- 
tonic settlements  within  the  Empire  (3) — movements 
of  the.  Goths ;  defeat  and  death  of  Valens  (4) — reigns 
of  Thfodosius  and  his  sons  (4) — Rome  taken  by  Alaric 
(4) — -foundation  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  in  Spain  (4) — 
invasion  of  Attila  (5) — later  Emperors  in  the  West ; 
the  two  Empires  nominally  reunited;  rule  of  Odoacer 
in  Italy  (5) — settlements  of  the  Burgundians  and 
Franks  in  Gaul;  reign  and  conquests  of  Chlodwig  (6) 
— settlement  of  the  Vandals  in  Africa  (7) — reign  of 
Theodoric  in  Italy  (7) — intermixture  of  Romans  and 
Teutons ;  origin  of  the  Romance  nations  (8) — growth 
of  the  Romance  languages  (9) — distinctions  of  High 
and  Low  Dutch  (10) — the  English  conquest  of  Britain; 
its  differences  from  the  other  Teutonic  settlements  (n). 

i.  Constantine  and  his  Family. — The  changes 
which  were  wrought  by  Constantine  made  him  one  of 
th;  most  famous  of  all  the  Emperors.  He  was  the  son 
of  Constantius,  who  had  reigned  under  Diocletian  and 
Maximian  in  Britain,  Spain,  and  Gaul,  and  who,  though 
not  a  Christian  himself,  had,  out  of  justice  and  hu- 
manity, done  what  he  could  to  protect  the  Christians. 
Constantine  himself  for  a  long  time  did  the  same. 
He  protected  the  Christians,  but  he  did  not  profess 
their  religion  till  the  last  civil  war  in  323,  which  gave 
him  possession  of  the  whole  Empire.  He  presently 
made  a  change  which  had  a  great  effect  upon  the  later 
history  of  the  Empire.  Rome,  as  we  have  seen,  had 


96  THE  EARL  Y  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.     [CHAT 

ceased  to  be  the  usual  dwelling-place  of  the  Emperors. 
Constantine  now  fixed  the  capital  of  the  Empire  in 
the  old  Greek  city  of  Byzantion  on  the  Bosporus,, 
which  he  greatly  enlarged  and  called  New  Rome,  but 
which  has  ever  since  been  better  known  as  Constanti- 
nople or  the  City  of  Constantine.  From  this  time,  what- 
ever changes  and  divisions  there  were,  Constantinople 
remained  the  capital  of  the  whole  Empire  when  it  was 
united,  and  of  the  Eastern  part  when  it  was  divided. 
The  chief  power  was  thus  placed  in  a  city  which  was 
Christian  from  what  we  may  call  its  new  birth,  and 
which  had  none  of  the  heathen  associations  of  the 
Old  Rome.  And,  as  Constantinople  was  in  its  origin 
a  Greek  city,  it  soon  again  became,  though  it  was  the 
capital  of  the  Roman  Empire,  a  city  more  Greek  than 
Roman,  and  it  gradually  took  the  place  of  Antioch  and 
Alexandria  as  the  chief  seat  of  Greek  culture  and  learn- 
ing. Constantine  too  in  his  new  capital  was  able  to  set 
more  fully  in  order  the  despotic  system  of  govern- 
ment which  had  been  brought  in  by  Diocletian. 
From  this  time,  though  the  Senate  and  the  Con- 
suls still  went  on,  we  may  look  on  the  Empire  as 
being  an  absolute  monarchy  in  form  as  well  as  in  fact. 
And  moreover  Constantine  not  only  reigned  longer 
than  any  Emperor  since  Augustus,  but  he  established 
his  power  so  firmly  that  the  Empire  lasted  in  his 
family  as  long  as  any  of  his  family  were  left.  But 
they  were  mostly  cut  off  by  their  own  kinsfolk.  Con- 
stantine divided  his  dominions  among  his  three  sons, 
but  at  last,  in  353,  the  Empire  was  again  united  in  his 
son  Constantiits,  who  reigned  at  Constantinople  till 
361.  There  were  several  revolts  and  rival  Emperors  in 
his  time,  as  well  as  many  disputes  in  the  Church,  and 
unsuccessful  wars  with  the  Germans  and  Persians.  But 
his  cousin  Julian,  who  was  Ccesar  under  him  in  the 
West,  drove  the  Germans  out  of  Gaul,  and  thus  made 
himself  a  great  name.  At  last  his  soldiers  proclaimec1 
him  Augustus,  and,  as  Constantius  died  soon  after 


v.]       ESTABLISHMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY.       \fj 

Julian  got  possession  of  the  whole  Empire  without 
much  trouble.  But  his  reign  did  not  last  long,  as  io 
363  he  died  in  war  against  the  Peisians,  and  the 
family  of  Constantine  ended  with  him. 

2.  The  Establishment  of  Christianity. — 
When  Constantine  embraced  Christianity,  the  long 
struggle  between  the  Church  and  the  power  of  heathen 
Rome  came  to  an  end.  The  Church  conquered  the 
Empire.  Not  only  did  the  Empire  become  Christian, 
but  Christianity  became  in  a  special  way  the  religion 
of  the  Empire.  Christianity  has  hardly  anywhere 
taken  firm  and  lasting  root,  except  in  those  countries 
which  either  formed  part  of  the  Roman  Empire  or 
learned  their  religion  and  civilization  from  it,  and 
from  this  time  the  history  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
Empire  go  together.  Constantine,  as  was  often  done 
at  that  time,  put  off  his  baptism  till  just  before  his 
death.  Yet  he  acted  throughout  as  the  chief  ruler  ot 
the  Church  ;  and  when  Arius,  a  priest  of  Alexandria, 
put  forth  new  doctrines  as  to  the  more  mysterious 
points  of  Christian  belief,  it  was  by  the  Emperor's 
authority  that  a  Council  of  Bishops  was  gathered  to- 
gether at  Nikaia  in  Bithynia  in  325.  This  is  com- 
monly called  the  Council  of  Nice,  and  here  the  Nicene 
Creed  was  drawn  up.  This  was  the  first  of  what  are 
called  the  General  Councils  of  the  Church,  several  of 
which  were  held  in  this  and  the  next  century.  For 
men  were  at  this  time  constantly  disputing  about  the 
deepest  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  each 
heresy,  that  is.  each  new  and  strange  kind  of  teaching, 
commonly  called  for  a  Council  to  settle  the  dispute. 
The  truth  is  that  the  despotic  system  of  the  Empire 
had  so  thoroughly  crushed  men's  minds  in  all  political 
matters  that  it  was  only  on  points  of  religion  that  there 
was  any  free  play  of  thought  at  all.  Moreover,  while 
Christianity  is  essentially  the  religion  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  different  forms  of  Christianity  took  their 
firmest  root  in  different  parts  of  the  Empire,  accord- 


93  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.     [CHAI 

ing  to  the  character  and  turn  of  mind  of  the  people. 
Thus  in   the  West,  where    Latin   was   spoken,    men 
thought  les?  about  subtle  points  of  doctrine ;  but  we 
shall  see  that,  before  long,  Rome  again  became  the 
ruling  and  Imperial  city  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  as 
she  had  once  been  in  temporal  dominion.     Mean- 
while, in  the  Greek-speaking  provinces  men's  minds 
were   more    given    to    hard    questions    of   doctrine. 
As  the  Greeks  had  in  old  times  produced  so  many 
subtle  philosophers,  so  they  now  produced   equally 
subtle  divines.     And  in  the  further  East,  in  Syria  and 
Egypt,  in  the  lands  which  had  never  thoroughly  be* 
come  either  Greek  or  Roman,  men  fell  off  into  doc- 
trines which  both  Greeks  and  Latins  thought  heretical. 
This  was  the  only  way  that  was  left  to  them  of  assert- 
ing their   national   independence.     Thus   the   whole 
Empire  gradually  embraced  Christianity  ;  but  Chris- 
tianity took  different  shapes  in  different  parts,    and 
there  were  long  disputings  on  various  points  of  doc- 
trine, and  of  course  men  did  not  become  Christians 
of  any  kind  all  at  once.     Many  still  clave  to  the  old 
heathen  worship,  especially  what  we  may  call  the  two 
ends  of  mankind,  that  is  to  say,  the  philosophers  who 
trusted  in  their  own  wisdom,  and  the  rude  peasantry 
in   the   country-places.     For   Christianity  was  every- 
where preached  first  in  the  towns  ;  hence  it  came  that 
the  word  paganus,  which  at  first  simply  meant  a  coun- 
tryman, came  to  mean  a  pagan  or  heathen  or  worship- 
per of  false  Gods.     Still,  from  the  time  that  Constan- 
tine  professed  himself  a  Christian,  Christianity  grew 
and  paganism  went  back,  though  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  the  spread  of  Christianity  was  greatly  hindered  by 
the  endless    disputes   in    the    Church.       Constantius 
favoured  the  Arians,  and,  after  his  death,  paganism 
got  a  new  start  for  a  moment.     Fo:  Julian,  though  he 
had  been  brought  up  as  Christian,  and  though  in  hia 
own  life  he  was  one  of  the  best  of  all  the  Emper  jrs, 
fell  back  again  to  the  worship  of  the  old  Gods.     Bui 


v.]  THE  TEUTONIC  INVASIONS.  99 

all  the  Emperors  after  him  were  Christians,  and  by  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century  after  Christ,  the  Christians 
weie,  to  say  the  least,  the  great  majority  in  most  parts 
of  the  Empire.  Under  the  Emperors  Gratian  and 
T/ieodostus,  who  reigned  between  them  from  367  to 
395,  the  public  profession  of  paganism  was  quite  put 
an  end  to. 

3.  The   Teutonic    Invasions. — We  have   now 
come  to  the  time  when  the  nations  of  our  own  race 
began   to  make  their    way    into    the  Empire.       We 
have  seen  that  the  different  German  tribes  had  been 
most  dangerous  enemies  of  Rome  ever  since  the  time 
of  Augustus,  and  that  many  of  the  most  valiant  Em- 
perors had  much  ado  to  defend  the  Empire  against 
them.     So  it  was  still ;  Constantine  and  Julian  had  to 
fight  hard  against  the  Germans,  and  so  had  Valentiniaii, 
the  next  Emperor  but  one  after  Julian.     But  in  all  these 
wars,  though  the  Germans  were  constantly  driven  back, 
yet  they  grew  stronger  and  stronger,  while  the  Romans 
grew   weaker    and  weaker.      Some  of  the  Germans 
made  their  way  into  the  Empire  in  arms  :  others  took 
service  in  the  Roman  armies,  and  often  received  grants 
of  land  as  their  reward.     In  both  ways  they  learned, 
something  of  Roman  civilization  and  Roman  military 
discipline,    without   losing   anything    of    their   own 
strength   and    courage.      Presently    it    became    not 
uncommon  for  a  Gothic  or  other  Teutonic  chief  to 
be  at  once  King  of  his  own  people  and  to  bear  some 
title  as  a  Roman  general  or  magistrate.     In  such  cases 
he  and  his  people  served  the   Emperors   or   fought 
against  them,  pretty  much  as  they  thought  good,  or 
according  as  they  were  well  or  ill  treated.     And  at  the 
same  time  they  learned  something  ot  the  religion  of 
Rome,  so  that  most  of  the  Teutonic  nations  became 
Christians,  before  they  settled  in  the  Empire  c*r  very 
soon  after.     But  it  was  for  the  most  part  in  v(s  Arian 
form  that  they  embraced  Christianity.     Thus  ve  find 
Barbarians,  who  for    the   most   part   however   were 


loo  THE  EARL  Y  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.    [CHAP 

Christians.,  settled  within  the  Empire  ;  and  before  lon& 
they  began  to  occupy  whole  provinces.  We  have  now 
come  to  the  time  when  the  Teutonic  settlements 
and  conquests  become  the  most  important  facts  in 
history.  It  often  happens  that  the  migrations  and 
victories  of  one  nation  are  caused  by  some  other 
nation  pressing  upon  it.  And  so  it  happened  now. 
The  movements  of  the  Teutonic  nations  into  the 
Roman  Empire  which  had  already  begun  was  greatly 
hastened  and  strengthened  by  the  pressure  of  Tura- 
nian tribes  who  were  pushing  their  way  from  the  East. 
The  chief  of  these  were  the  HUILS,  who  had  been  them- 
selves driven  out  of  China  in  the  extreme  east  of  Asia, 
and  who  were  now  making  their  way  into  Europe. 
Though  the  Huns  did  not  themselves  enter  the  Em- 
pire till  long  afterwards,  and  though  they  never 
actually  settled  within  it  at  any  time,  yet  this  migra- 
tion of  theirs  had  a  most  important  effect  on  the  state 
of  the  Empire,  by  the  stir  which  it  caused  among  the 
Teutonic  nations. 

4.  The  Goths. — The  first  Teutonic  people  whom 
the  Huns  met  were  the  Goths,  who  had  lately  formed 
a  great  kingdom  in  the  land  north  of  the  Danube, 
which  had  been  Trajan's  province  of  Dacia,  but  from 
which  the  Romans  had  withdrawn  under  Aurelian. 
They  were  beginning  to  become  Christians  of  the 
Arian  sect,  under  the  teaching  of  a  Bishop  named 
Wiiljila  or  Ulfilas,  whose  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
into  the  Gothic  tongue  is  the  oldest  Teutonic  writing 
that  we  have.  The  Huns  now  came  upon  them  like  a 
storm  ;  some  of  the  Goths  submitted  to  the  new  in- 
vaders, while  others  were  allowed  to  cross  the  Danube 
and  settle  within  the  Empire.  This  was  in  376.  The 
first  Valcntinian  was  now  dead  :  the  reigning  Emperors 
were  his  brother  Valens  in  the  East  and  his  sonj 
(./rattan  and  Valentinian  in  the  West.  The  Goths 
were  so  ill-treated  by  the  officers  of  Valens  that  they 
took  to  arms;  a  "Ddttle  was  long  lit  near 


V.J  THE  GOTHS.  101 

in  378,  in  which  Valens  was  killed.  After  this  the 
Goths  were  never  driven  out  of  the  Empire,  though 
many  of  them  took  service  in  the  Roman  armies.  But 
strangely  enough,  when  the  Goths  came  to  found  » 
lasting  kingdom,  it  was  not  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
Empire  into  which  they  had  first  passed,  but  quite 
away  in  the  West.  This  was  a  most  wretched  time 
for  the  Empire ;  for,  besides  the  movements  of  the 
Barbarians,  various  Emperors  or  Tyrants  rose  and  fell 
in  different  provinces,  especially  in  Gaul  and  Britain. 
Things  went  on  a  little  better  during  the  reign  of 
7'heodosius,  who  is  called  the  Great,  and  who  reigned, 
first  as  a  colleague  of  the  sons  of  Valentinian,  and  after- 
wards alone,  from  379  to  395.  Theodosius  is  famous 
for  the  penance  to  which  he  submitted  at  the  hands  , 
of  Saint  Ambrose,  the  Archbishop  of  Milan,  who  re- 
fused him  admittance  to  the  church  till  he  had  repented 
of  a  massacre  which  he  had  ordered  among  the  tur- 
bulent people  of  Tfiessalonica.  Theodosius  was  the 
last  Emperor  who  reigned  over  the  whole  Empire 
before  it  was  divided  and  dismembered ;  as  soon  as 
he  died  it  began  to  fall  in  pieces.  He  left  two  sons, 
of  whom  Honorins  reigned  in  the  West,  and  Arcadius 
in  the  East.  The  West-Goths,  under  their  famous 
king  Alaric,  presently  revolted,  and,  though  they  were 
kept  in  check  for  a  while  by  the  Roman  general 
Stilicho,  at  last,  in  410,  they  took  and  sacked  Rome, 
which  had  never  been  taken  by  a  foreign  enemy  since 
the  time  of  Brennus  the  Gaul.  Alaric  died  soon  after, 
and  the  next  Gothic  King  Athaulf  \\\a.&e  a  treaty  with 
the  Empire  and  passed  into  Gaul  and  Spain.  German 
tribes  of  all  kinds  were  now  pressing  into  Gaul,  and 
from  Gaul  into  Spain,  and  rival  Emperors  were  rising 
and  falling.  Athaulf  went  in  name  as  a  Roman  officer 
10  restore  the  province  of  Spain  to  the  Empire.  In 
reality  this  was  the  beginning  of  an  independent 
Gothic  kingdom  in  Spain  arid  southern  Gaul,  and  the 
way  in  which  this  kingdom  began  is  a  good  example 


102  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.     [CMAP 

of  the  way  in  which  the  Roman  Empire,  its  laws  an<? 
titles,  still  exercised  a  powerful  influence  on  the  minds 
of  those  who  were  really  its  conquerors. 

5.  End  of  the  Emperors  in  Italy. — Meanwhile 
the  Western  Empire  was  being  cut  short  in  all 
quarters  by  the  settlements  of  the  Franks,  Burgun- 
dians,  Vandals,  and  other  Teutonic  tribes  in  the 
different  provinces,  settlements  which  we  shall  speak 
of  again  presently.  No  Teutonic  kingdoms  were 
founded  in  the  East ;  but,  while  the  Western  pro- 
vinces were  falling  off  one  by  one,  the  East  had 
much  ado  to  hold  up  against  the  attacks  of  the 
Persians.  Presently  the  Romans  of  both  Empires, 
and  the  Goths  and  other  Teutons  who  had  settled 
within  the  Empire,  were  all  threatened  by  the 
Turanian  hordes  under  the  famous  Attila,  King  of 
the  Huns.  He  went  on  for  a  while  ravaging  and 
conquering  far  and  wide,  till  at  last  he  was  defeated 
in  the  great  battle  of  Chalons  in  451  by  the  united 
powers  of  Romans,  Goths,  and  Franks.  This  was 
one  of  the  most  important  battles  in  the  history  of  the 
vorld  ;  it  was  a  struggle  for  life  and  death  between 
ihe  Aryan  and  Turanian  races,  and  Christianity  and 
civilization,  and  all  that  distinguishes  Europe  from 
Asia  and  Africa,  \vere  at  stake.  The  names  therefore 
of  Aetius,  the  Roman  general,  and  of  the  West-Gothic 
King  Theodoric  who  died  in  the  battle,  are  names 
which  should  always  be  held  in  honour.  It  is  need- 
less to  go  through  the  names  of  all  the  Emperors  of 
this  time  :  the  onjy  one  in  the  West  who  is  worth 
remembering  on  his  own  account  is  Majorian,  a  wise 
and  brave  man,  who  reigned  from  457  to  461.  At 
last,  in  476,  the  succession  of  the  Western  Empercrs 
came  to  an  end,  and  the  way  in  which  it  came  to 
an  end  marks  the  way  in  which  the  names  and 
titles  of  Rome  were  kept  on,  while  all  power  was 
passing  into  the  hands  of  the  Barbarians.  The 
Roman  Senate  voted  that  one  Emperor  was  enough, 


*.l  THE  LATER  EMPERORS.  105 

and  that  the  Eastern  Emperor  Zeno  should  reign  ovei 
the  whole  Empire.  But  at  the  same  time  Zeno  was 
made  to  intrust  the  government  of  Italy,  with  the  title 
of  Patrician,  to  Odoaccr,  the  chief  of  the  German 
mercenaries  in  the  service  of  the  Western  Empire. 
Thus  the  Roman  Empire  went  on  at  Constantinople 
or  New  Rome,  while  Italy  and  the  Old  Rome  itself 
passed  into  the  power  of  the  Barbarians.  Stiil  the 
Roman  laws  and  names  went  on,  and  we  may  be  sure 
that  any  man  in  Italy  would  have  been  much  sur- 
prised if  he  had  been  told  that  the  Roman  Empire  had 
come  to  an  end.  We  shall  presently  see  what  im- 
portant events  came  of  this  long  keeping  on  of  the  old 
Roman  names  and  feelings. 

6.  Settlements  of  the  Burgundians  and 
Franks. — It  was  through  these  settlements  of  the 
Teutonic  tribes  within  the  Roman  Empire  that 
several  of  the  chief  nations  of  modern  Europe  arose. 
We  may  perhaps  call  the  Spanish  kingdom  of  the 
West-Goths,  of  which  we  have  already  spoken,  and 
which  began  about  414,  the  first  of  the  kingdoms  of 
modern  Europe,  the  first  which  arose  out  of  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  Roman  Empire.  For  some  while  it  was 
not  merely  a  Spanish  kingdom,  for  it  took  in  all 
Aquitaine  or  Gaul  south  of  the  Loire,  and  the  capital 
of  the  West-Gothic  kings  was  at  Toulouse.  Meanwhile 
the  Burgundians  and  Franks,  whose  names  are  so 
famous  in  later  history,  began  to  settle,  at  first  under 
a  nominal  subjection  to  the  Empire,  in  other  parts 
of  Gaul.  The  Burgundians  settled  in  the  south- 
eastern part  of  Gaul,  where  their  name  has  lived  on 
in  several  kingdoms  and  duchies.  And,  towards  the 
em'  of  the  fifth  century,  the  kingdom  of  the  Franks 
took  firm  root  in  Gaul  under  their  King  Chlodwig  or 
Cloins — the  same  name  which  was  afterwards  written 
Ludwig,  Louis,  and  Lewis — who  reigned  from  481  to 
511.  He  became  a  Christian,  and  not  only  a  Chris- 
tian but  a  Catholic,  which  greatly  favoured  his  con 


104  THE  EARL  V  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.     [CHAT 

quests,  as  all  the  other  Teutonic  Kings  were  Arians. 
The  dominions  of  the  Franks  now  took  in  part  of 
their  old  country  in  Germany  and  also  their  conquests 
in  GauL  And  they  have  given  their  name  to  parts  ol 
both  countries  ;  for  part  of  Germany  is  still  called 
Franken  or  Franconia,  and  part  of  Gaul  is  still  called 
France.  In  Latin  both  names  are  the  same,  Francia. 
But  the  Franks  gradually  spread  their  conquests  over 
a  much  larger  part  both  of  Gaul  and  of  Germany, 
bringing  the  different  nations  of  both  lands  into 
more  or  less  of  subjection  to  them.  Thus  in  Gaul  they 
conquered  the  kingdom  of  the  Burgundians  and  won 
Aquitaine  from  the  West-Goths,  leaving  to  them  only 
a  small  part  of  Gaul  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean. 
But  it  was  only  in  Northern  Gaul  that  the  Franks 
really  settled.  It  was  out  of  these  settlements  of  the 
West-Goths,  Franks,  and  Burgundians  that  all  the 
modern  states  of  Germany,  Gaul,  and  Spain  have 
arisen. 

7.  The  Vandals  and  the  East-Goths.— But 
there  were  other  Teutonic  settlements  in  the  Empire 
which  did  not  in  this  way  give  birth  to  modern  states 
and  nations,  because  the  Emperors  were,  as  we  shall 
presently  see,  able  to  join  them  again  to  the  Empire. 
Among  these  were  what  we  may  call  the  worst  and 
the  best  of  the  Teutonic  settlements,  those  namely 
of  the  Vandals  in  Africa  and  of  the  East-Goths  in 
Italy.  The  Vandals  were  for  some  time  settled  in 
Spain,  but  in  429  they  crossed  over  into  Africa  and. 
founded  a  kingdom  of  which  Carthage  was  the  capital. 
The  Vandals  were  Arians,  and  they  cruelly  persecuted 
the  Catholic  Romans  whom  they  found  in  the 
country,  and  this  seems  to  have  been  one  reason 
among  others  why  their  kingdom  did  not  last.  The 
kingdom  of  the  East-Goths  in  Italy  was  very  different. 
Their  King  Theodoric  entered  Italy  in  489  by  a  com- 
mission from  the  Emperor  Zeno,  overthrew  Odoacer, 
and  reigu^d  himself  from  493  to  526.  But,  though  he 


EUROPE 

at  the  end  of  the 
FIFTH  CENTURY 


r.]  REIGN  OF  THEODORIC.  10$ 

reigned  in  Italy,  he  was  never  called  King  of  Italy, 
but  only  King  of  his  own  Goths.  Though  he  was  an 
Arian,  he  in  no  way  persecuted  the  Catholics,  and  he 
let  the  Romans  keep  their  own  laws  and  all  that  they 
were  used  to.  Every  year  he  named  one  of  the 
Consuls,  while  the  other  was  named  by  the  Emperor 
at  Constantinople.  Italy  under  Theodoric  was  the 
most  peaceful  and  flourishing  country  in  the  world, 
more  peaceful  and  flourishing  than  it  had  been  for  a 
long  time  before  or  than  it  has  ever  been  since  till 
quite  lately.  The  dominions  of  Theodoric  stretched 
fat  beyond  Italy  to  the  north,  east,  and  west,  and  he 
ruled  the  West-Gothic  kingdom  in  Gaul  and  Spain  as 
guardian  for  his  grandson.  But  this  great  dominion 
of  the  East-Goths  did  not  last  any  more  than  that  of 
the  Vandals  in  Africa,  and  none  of  the  modern  states 
or  nations  of  Europe  can  be  said  to  spring  from  either 
of  them. 

8.  Origin  of  the  Romance  Nations. — We  thus 
see  that  new  states  arose  out  of  the  settlements  of  the 
Teutonic  nations  in  the  western  provinces  of  the 
Empire.  And  we  may  say  that  not  only  new  states 
arose,  but  also  new  nations.  For,  out  of  the  mixture 
of  the  Roman  inhabitants  and  the  Teutonic  settlers, 
there  arose  a  new  state  of  things,  which  was  neither 
Roman  nor  Teutonic,  but  a  mixture  of  the  two.  The 
Goths  and  the  other  Teutons  who  settled  in  Italy, 
Spain,  and  Gaul  were  by  no  means  mere  destroyers 
who  swept  everything  before  them.  They  let  the 
Romans  keep  their  own  laws  and  language  and  part 
of  their  lands.  And  in  Spain  and  Gaul  those  nations, 
like  the  Goths  and  Burgundians,  which  had  been  con- 
verted by  Arian  Bishops  gradually  came  over  to  the 
Catholic  faith.  Moreover,  as  the  Romans  had  all  the 
learning  and  civilization  on  their  side,  the  clergy  were 
for  a  long  time  almost  always  Romans,  and  they  kept 
the  property  and  influence  which  they  had  before,  and 
indeed  added  to  it  Thus  the  two  nations  were 


io6  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.      [CHAR 

gradually  mixed  together ;  and  the  conquerors,  as 
being  the  smaller  in  number,  gradually  came  to  adopt 
a  great  deal  of  the  laws  and  manners,  and  especially 
the  language,  of  the  conquered.  Thus  there  arose  the 
modern  Spanish  and  Italian  nations,  and  the  two 
nations  of  Gaul,  the  people  of  Provence  and  Aquitaint 
south  of  the  Loire  and  the  French  to  the  north.  But 
of  the  languages  which  were  thus  formed  we  must 
speak  a  little  more  fully. 

9.  Origin  of  the  Romance  Languages.— By 
the  time  the  Teutonic  settlements  in  Western  Europe 
took  place,  Latin  had  become  the  common  speech 
of  Gaul  and  Spain  no  less  than  of  Italy.  The  old 
languages  which  were  spoken  before  the  Romans 
came  lived  on  only  in  a  few  out-of-the-way  cornerSi 
like  the  country  of  the  Basques.  The  language 
therefore  which  the  Teutonic  settlers  found  prevailing, 
and  which  they  had  to  learn  in  order  to  get  on  with 
the  people  of  the  provinces,  was  Latin.  That  is  to 
say,  it  was  such  Latin  as  was  spoken  at  the  time, 
which  of  course  was  not  quite  the  same  as  the  Latin 
of  the  great  Roman  writers  of  earlier  times,  and  the 
language  no  doubt  differed  more  or  less  in  different 
provinces.  And,  as  the  Germans  learned  to  speak 
Latin,  the  language  naturally  became  still  more  cor- 
rupted, and  a  good  many  German  words  crept  into  it. 
Thus  the  common  language  of  Italy,  Gaul,  and  Spain 
became  a  kind  of  corrupt  Latin,  which  men  used  in 
common  speech  ;  in  writing  they  used  fairly  good 
Latin  for  ages  after.  No  one  thought  of  writing  in  the 
common  speech,  which  began  to  be  called  Roman,  in 
distinction  from  the  Latin  which  men  wrote.  Thus, 
out  of  the  various  dialects  of  this  Roman  language, 
several  of  the  chief  languages  of  modern  Europe  very 
gradually  arose.  These  are  those  which  are  called  the 
Romance  languages,  those  namely  which  have  their 
origin  in  Latin.  The  chief  of  these  are  Italian  and 
Spanish  in  their  different  dialects,  Provencal  ic 


v.J  HIGH  AND  LOW  DUTCH.  lof 

Southern,  and  French  in  Northern,  Gaul.  These 
languages  had  their  beginning  at  the  time  of  which  we 
are  now  speaking,  but  it  was  not  until  long  afterwards 
that  men  began  to  understand  that  quite  new  languages 
had  really  grown  up.  And,  besides  these  four  great 
Romance  languages,  a  fifth,  distinct  from  any  of  them, 
which  is  still  specially  called  Romansch,  is  spoken  in 
the  eastern  parts  of  Switzerland,  in  what  was  anciently 
the  Roman  province  of  Rcetia.  And,  stranger  still,  in 
the  lands  which  formed  the  province  of  Dacia,  which 
the  Romans  held  only  from  the  time  of  Trajan  to  that 
of  Aurelian,a  Romance  language  is  still  spoken,  and  the 
people  still  call  themselves  Roumans.  Of  the  fourth 
great  Latin-speaking  country,  Africa,  we  have  nothing 
to  say  in  this  way,  for,  as  we  go  on,  we  shall  see  how 
in  Africa  everything  Roman  and  everything  Teutonic 
was  utterly  swept  away. 

10.  High  and  Low  Dutch. — Such  was  the  way 
m  which  the  Teutonic  nations  established  themselves 
in  the  western  provinces  of  the  Continent.  Meanwhile 
other  Teutonic  settlements  of  quite  another  kind,  and 
made  by  another  branch  of  the  Teutonic  race,  were 
going  on  elsewhere.  This  is  a  good  place  to  stop  and 
explain  that  there  are  two  great  divisions  of  the 
Teutonic  or  Dutch  people,  the  High  and  the  Low. 
It  must  always  be  remembered  that,  though  we  now 
commonly  use  the  word  Dutch  to  mean  only  the  people 
of  Holland,  yet  the  word  is  always  used  in  German,  and 
was  formerly  used  in  English,  to  mean  the  whole  of  the 
German  people.  And,  as  the  Germans  called  their 
own  speech  Thiotisc,  Deutsch,  or  Dutch,  meaning  the 
language  which  could  be  understood,  those  people 
whose  language  could  not  be  understood  were  called 
Welsh  or  strangers.  The  High-Dutch  are  those  who 
live  inland,  in  the  south  of  Germany  away  from  the 
sea,  while  the  Low  are  those  who  live  near  the  sea,  by 
the.  mouths  of  the  great  rivers  Rhine,  Weser,  and  Elbe. 
Info  the  greater  part  of  their  country  the  Romans  had 


108  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.      [CHAF. 

never  come  since  the  days  of  Drusus  and  Germani- 
cus,  and  for  a  long  time  they  knew  very  little  of  the 
Romans,  and  the  Romans  knew  very  little  of  them. 
They  had  not  served  in  the  Roman  armies,  and  they 
knew  nothing  about  the  Christian  religion.  They  were 
therefore  in  quite  a  different  state  from  the  other 
tribes  who  had  made  their  way  into  the  continental 
provinces ;  for  these  last  knew  something  of  the  civil- 
i/ation  and  religion  of  Rome,  even  before  they  en- 
tered the  Roman  dominions.  Of  the  earlier  Teutonic 
settlers  the  greater  part  belonged  to  the  High-Dutch 
division,  though  the  language  of  the  Goths  had  much 
more  in  common  with  the  Low.  But,  though  the 
Low-Dutch  and  Gothic  languages  are  thus  closely 
connected,  yet  the  settlements  of  the  Goths  have 
historically  nothing  to  do  with  the  settlements  of  the 
Low-Dutch.  Those  Low-Dutch  settlements  which 
have  had  most  effect  on  the  history  of  the  world,  and 
in  which  we  have  the  deepest  interest,  were  made  in 
quite  another  part  of  the  Empire,  and  in  quite  another 
way.  The  settlements  of  the  Goths  and  Franks  \\vre 
mainly  made  by  land,  while  the  great  settlement  of  the 
Low-Dutch  tribes  was  made  by  sea. 

ii.  The  English  Conquest  of  Britain. — We 
have  seen  that  in  the  island  of  Britain,  of  which  the 
greater  part  became  a  Roman  province  in  the  time  of 
Agricola,  the  Romans  found  a  Celtic  people,  the 
Britons.  But  in  the  north  of  the  island,  and  in  the 
other  great  island  of  Inland,  there  was  another  Celtic 
people,  the  Scots  or  Irish.  The  Romans  never  even 
tried  to  conquer  Ireland,  and  they  never  conquered 
the  whole  of  Britain.  The  northern  part  of  what  is 
now  called  Scotland  always  remained  free.  In  the 
rest  of  the  island  the  Britons  were  conquered,  and 
the  land  became  a  Roman  province.  But  in  the  fourth 
century,  when  the  power  of  Rome  began  to  gel  \veaker 
the  free  Celts  in  the  northern  part  of  the  island,  the 
.SViV.v,  Megan  to  pour  into  the  Roman  pro- 


v.]  THE  ENGLISH  IN  BRITAIN.  109 

vince,  and  other  enemies  began  to  invade  the  land 
from  the  east  by  sea.  These  las,t  were  no  other  than 
the  forefathers  of  the  English  of  to-day.  For  the 
English  people  belong  to  the  Low-Dutch  stock,  and 
entered  Britain  from  the  old  Low-Dutch  lands  by  the 
Elbe  and  the  Weser.  It  was  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
fourth  century  that  these  Low-Dutch  tribes,  and,  first 
among  them,  the  Saxons,  began  to  make  attacks  on 
Britain  by  sea.  The  Saxons  are  also  heard  of  a? 
pressing  into  Gaul  by  land,  and  they  even  made  one 
or  two  small  settlements  there ;  but  their  attacks  on 
Britain  by  sea  were  those  which  led  to  the  greatest  re- 
sults. The  first  great  Saxon  invasion  was  in  the  time 
of  Valentinian,  but  it  was  driven  back  by  Theodosius^ 
father  of  the  Emperor  of  that  name.  But  when  the 
Roman  power  began  altogether  to  give  way  in  the 
reign  of  Honorius,  the  Roman  troops  were  withdrawn 
from  Britain,  about  the  year  410,  and  the  island  was 
left  to  shift  for  itself.  The  Teutonic  invasions  now 
naturally  began  again,  and  now  it  was  that  the  invad- 
ers began  to  settle  in  the  land.  No  doubt  men  of 
many  different  Low-Dutch  tribes  joined  in  these  ex- 
peditions ;  but  there  were  three  tribes  which  stood 
out  above  the  others.  These  were  the  Angles,  the 
Saxons,  and  the  Jutes.  The  Celts,  the  Britons  and 
Scots,  have  always  called  Englishmen  Saxons,  most 
likely  because  it  was  the  Saxons  who  made  the  first 
attack  in  Valentinian' s  time.  But,  as  soon  as  the 
different  Teutonic  tribes  in  Britain  began  to  join  to- 
gether into  one  people,  the  name  by  which  they  called 
themselves  was  Angles  or  English,  and  the  land  was 
called  Anglia  or  England.  Thus  it  was  that  the 
English  people  went  from  their  old  homes  on  the 
mainland,  and  won  for  themselves  new  homes  in  the 
isle  of  Britain.  They  knew  nothing  and  cared 
nothing  for  the  laws  or  language  or  aits  of  Rome. 
They  did  not,  like  the  Goths  and  Franks,  adopt  the 
language  and  religion  of  the  Romans ;  they  swept 


no          THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  EMPIRE.     [CHAP. 

everything  before  them,  and  the  Britons  were  eithci 
killed,  or  made  slaves,  or  took  refuge  in  the  western 
parts  of  the  island.  The  Germans  everywhere  called 
the  people  of  the  Roman  provinces,  whose  tongue  they 
did  not  understand,  Welsh,  and  that  word  in  German 
is  still  applied  to  the  French  and  Italians.  But  in 
Britain  of  course  the  name  meant  the  Britons ;  they 
were  called,  and  are  still  called  the  Welsh,  and  the 
part  of  the  island  which  they  still  keep  is  called  Wales. 
The  first  English  kingdom  founded  in  Britain  was  that 
of  Kent,  a  kingdom  of  the  Jutes,  founded  in  449,  two 
years  before  Aetius  and  Theodoric  overthrew  Attila 
at  Chalons.  Presently  other  kingdoms,  Anglian  and 
Saxon,  were  founded,  and,  in  a  little  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years,  the  greater  part  of  that  land  which  had 
been  the  Roman  and  Christian  province  of  Britain 
had  become  the  heathen  land  of  the  Angles  and  Sax- 
ons. Thus  it  was  that  the  English  people  settled  in 
the  land  which  thus  became  England,  settling  in  quite 
another  way  from  that  in  which  the  other  Teutonic 
nations  had  settled  in  the  other  parts  of  the  Empire. 
Our  forefathers  kept  their  own  language  and  their  own 
religion.  The  other  Teutons  did  not  become  Christians 
till  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  English 
Conquest  began,  and  then  they  were  not  converted  by 
those  whom  they  had  conquered.  But  the  tongue 
which  we  still  speak,  though,  like  other  tongues, 
it  has  gone  through  many  changes,  is  still  in  its  main 
substance  the  old  Teutonic  speech  of  our  fathers. 

1 2.  Summary. — Thus,  in  the  course  of  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries,  the  Roman  Empire  gradually  be- 
came Christian.  The  capital  was  moved  to  Consian> 
tinople,  and,  when  the  Empire  was  divided,  Constan- 
tinople always  remained  the  capital  of  the  Eastern  part. 
Meanwhile  the  Goths,  franks,  and  other  Teutonic 
nations  pressed  into  the  Empire,  and  out  of  their 
settlements  the  Romance  nations  of  modern  Europe 
arose.  The  invasion  of  the  Huns  was  driven  back  bj 


n.]  THE  ENGLISH  IN  BRITAIN  in 

the  united  powers  of  Romans  and  Teutons.  The  series 
of  Emperors  in  the  West  came  to  an  end,  and  the 
Empire  was  nominally  reunited,  Theodoric  the  Goth 
reigning  in  Italy.  Meanwhile  the  Low-Dutch  tribes, 
the  Angles  and  Saxons,  were  settling  in  Britain,  and 
making  the  beginning  of  the  English  nation. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   ROMAN    EMPIRE   IN   THE   EAST. 

Continuation  of  the  Roman  Empire  at  Constantinople 
(l) — condition  of  the  Eastern  Church  (i) — reign  oj 
Justinian,  his  legislation  and  buildings  (2) — exploits 
of  Belisarius  and  Narsfa;  recovery  of  Africa  and 
Italy  (2) — Lombard  conquest  of  Italy ;  relations  oj 
Rome  and  Venice  to  the  Empire  (2) — wars  with  tht 
Turks  and  Avars  (3) — greatness  of  Persia  under  tlit 
two  Chosroes  j  Persian  victories  of  Heraclius  (3) — rise 
of  the  Saracens  ;  preaching-  of  Mahomet  j  spread  of  his 
religion  (4) — the  first  Caliphs;  their  wars  with  the 
Empire ;  conquests  of  Syria  and  Egypt ;  sieges  of  Con- 
stantinople (5) — Saracen  conquests  in  Africa,  Spain, 
and  Southern  Caul  (5) — Saracen  conquest  of  Persia, 
breaking  up  of  the  Saracenic  dominion;  position  of  (hi 
later  Caltphs'(6) — the  I  saurian  Emperors;  dispute  about 
images ;  decline  of  the  Imperial  power  tn  Italy  (7) — 
advance  of  the  Lombards  in  Italy  (8) — the  Merwings 
in  Gaul;  they  are  succeeded  by  the  Karlings  (8)— 
Pippin  invited  into  Italy ;  he  becomes  Patrician  of 
Rome  (8) — Charles  the  Great  conquers  the  Lombards ; 
his  election  as  Emperor  (8,  9) — Summary  (10). 

i.  The  Roman  Emperors  at  Constanti- 
nople.— The  succession  of  Roman  Emperors  thus 
came  to  an  end  in  the  West,  but  the  Empire  still  went 
on  at  Constantinople.  The  Emperors  who  reigned  there 
still  claimed  to  be  sovereigns  of  the  whole  Empire, 
though  they  had  no  real  power  weot  of  the  Hadriatic 


H2      THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  EAST.     [CHAP 

The  parts  of  the  Empire  which  were  really  under  the:i 
dominion  were  chiefly  those  which  either  were  originally 
Greek,  or  where  the  Greek  language  and  civilization 
had  been  spread  by  the  conquests  of  Alexander. 
That  is,  they  raled  over  the  lands  which  I  have 
before  spoken  of  as  the  Greek  and  the  Oriental 
provinces.  Still,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
these  Emperors  were  strictly  Roman  Emperors. 
The  Imperial  succession  went  on  without  any 
break  ;  the  laws  and  titles  of  Rome  were  kept  up, 
and,  though  Greek  was  the  language  which  was  mos* 
spoken,  yet  Latin  remained  for  a  long  time  the  officia. 
language,  that  which  was  used  in  drawing  up  laws  and 
public  documents  of  all  kinds.  There  is  no  need  to 
say  much  about  the  Emperors  who  reigned  at  Con 
stantinople  between  the  death  of  Theodosius  the  Great 
and  the  nominal  reunion  of  the  Empire  in  476 
Their  time  was  mainly  taken  up  with  wars  with  the 
IVrsians,  in  which  the  Romans  generally  got  the  worst, 
with  the  invasion  of  Attila  and  his  Huns,  and  with 
ecclesiastical  disputes  within  the  Empire.  The  people 
of  the  Oriental  provinces  especially,  who  had  never 
thoroughly  become  either  Greek  or  Roman,  were  con- 
stantly putting  forth  or  adopting  doctrines  which  the 
Catholic  Church,  both  of  the  Old  and  of  the  New 
Rome,  looked  on  as  heretical.  Several  Councils  of  the 
Church  were  held  during  this  time,  and  this  was  the 
time  of  some  of  the  most  famous  of  the  Greek  Fathers^ 
especially  the  great  preacher  Saint  John  Chrysostom, 
that  is,  the  Goldenmonth,  who  was  Patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople. The  Patriarchs  of  Constantinople  or 
New  Rome  were  the  chief  Bishops  in  the  East,  but, 
as  the  Emperors  were  always  at  hand,  they  never  won 
anything  like  the  same  power  which  the  Bishops  of  the 
Old  Rome  won  in  the  West.  Thus,  though  the  history 
of  the  Eastern  Empire  is  largely  a  history  of  ecclesias- 
tical disputes,  yet  we  never  find  there  the  same  kind 
ol  disputes  between  Church  and  State,  between  thtj 


VI.]       RECOVERY  OF  ITALY  AND  AFRICA.        113 

ecclesiastical  and  the  temporal  powers,  which  make  up 
so  great  a  part  of  Western  history. 

2.  The  Recovery  of  Italy  and  Africa. — As 
the  claims  of  the  Emperors  who  reigned  at  Con 
stantinople  to  rule  over  all  the  dominions  of  their 
predecessors  were  never  forgotten,  so  they  were  put 
forward  whenever  there  was  any  chance  ot  making 
them  good.  And  soon  after  the  Emperors  came  to 
an  end  in  the  West,  the  Emperors  at  Constantinople 
had  several  opportunities  of  meddling  in  Western 
affairs.  The  Franks  were  too  powerful  and  too  far 
off  for  the  Emperors  to  have  any  chance  of  winning 
back  Gaul ;  so  they  were  commonly  held  to  be  friends 
of  the  Empire,  and  in  510  Chlodwig  himself  was  made 
Roman  Consul  for  the  year.  With  Italy  the  Emperors 
had  much  more  to  do.  We  have  seen  that  both  Odoacer 
and  Theodoric  entered  Italy  with  a  nominal  com- 
mission from  the  Emperor  Zeno,  which  at  least  kept 
up  the  memory  of  the  claims  of  the  Emperors  to  rule 
in  Italy.  As  long  as  Theodoric  lived,  there  was  no 
hope  of  anything  more  than  this ;  but  after  his  death 
the  power  of  the  Goths  in  Italy  declined.  So  did 
also  that  of  the  Vandals  in  Africa,  and  the  reigning 
Emperor  now  began  to  think  that  it  would  be  possible 
to  make  both  countries  again  really,  as  well  as  nomin- 
ally, parts  of  the  Empire.  This  Emperor  was  Justinian, 
who  reigned  from  527  to  565,  and  was  one  of  the 
most  famous  of  all  the  Emperors.  He  was  famous 
for  his  buildings,  especially  for  the  great  church  of 
Saint  Sophia  at  Constantinople,  and  still  more  for 
putting  the  laws  of  Rome  into  the  shape  of  a  regular 
code.  Thus  was  formed  that  complete  system  of 
Roman  law,  called  the  Civil  Law,  which  has  formed 
the  groundwork  of  the  law  of  the  greater  part  of 
Europe.  Justinian  was  also  famous  for  the  greaf 
conquests  made  in  his  reign,  though  he  had  not  much 
to  do  with  making  them  himself.  His  general 
Bdisarius  was  perhaps  the  greatest  commander  thai 


n4         THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  LAST.   [CHAP 

ever  lived,  as  he  did  the  greatest  things  with  the 
smallest  means.  He  did  something  to  check  the 
Persians,  who  were  now  very  powerful  under  a  great 
King  called  Chosroes  or  Nushirvan.  In  534  Belisarius 
put  an  end  to  the  Vandal  kingdom  in  Africa,  and 
the  next  year,  being  then  Consul,  he  landed  in  Sicily, 
and  a  long  war  between  the  Romans  and  Goths  went 
on  under  Belisarius  and  his  successor  Narses,  till,  in 
553,  the  whole  of  Italy  was  recovered  to  the  Empire. 
Meanwhile  the  southern  part  of  Spain  was  also 
recovered  from  the  West-Goths,  so  that  Justinian 
reigned  both  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New  Rome,  and 
the  Roman  dominion  again  stretched  from  the  Ocean 
to  the  Euphrates.  It  would  have  been  far  wiser  if 
Justinian  had  left  the  West  alone,  and  had  given  his 
whole  mind  to  defending  his  Eastern  dominions 
against  the  Persians  and  against  the  various  enemies 
who  were  always  attacking  the  Empire  from  the  north. 
While  his  great  generals  were  conquering  Italy,  the 
Slavonic  tribes  ravaged  the  Illyrian  and  Thracian  pro- 
vinces at  pleasure.  In  fact  these  great  conquests 
were  really  a  source  of  weakness  rather  than  of 
strength.  Still  it  is  not  wonderful  that  Justinian,  as 
Roman  Emperor,  could  not  withstand  the  temptation, 
and  he  most  likely  thought  it  his  duty,  to  recover  as 
many  of  the  old  provinces  of  the  Empire  as  he  could. 
But,  after  all,  it  was  only  for  a  very  few  years  that  the 
Emperors  were  able  to  keep  the  whole  of  Italy. 
Three  years  after  Justinian's  death,  in  568,  a  Teutonic 
people  called  the  Lombards  began  to  pour  into  Italy, 
and  they  presently  conquered  the  whole  North  and 
some  parts  of  the  South.  Still  a  large  part  of  Italy,  in- 
cluding Rome  and  Ravenna,  most  part  of  the  South, 
and  the  islands  of  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica,  remain- 
ed to  the  Empire.  Venice  also,  a  state  which  began  to 
spring  up  in  the  fifth  century,  when  men  fled  for  fear 
of  the  Huns  and  sought  shelter  in  the  small  islands 
of  the  Hadriatic,  also  kept  up  itb  connexion  wit)  the 


to 


THE  EMPIRE 

UNDER 

JUSTINIAN 


;LODK.  w.       o 


Longitude 


vi.]  WARS  WITH  THE  PERSIANS.  in 

Empire,  but    its   connexion    gradually   became   one 
rather  of  alliance  than  of  subjection. 

3.  "Wars  with  the  Persians. — We  thus  see 
that,  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  the  Empire, 
though  so  large  a  part  of  it  had  fallen  away,  still  took 
in  the  greater  part  of  the  countries  round  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea,  and  still  kept  all  the  greatest  cities  of 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  But  it  was  threatened  on 
all  sides,  not  only  by  the  Lombards  in  the  West  but 
by  the  Slavonic  and  Turanian  nations  who  were 
pressing  in  from  the  North  in  the  countries  by  the 
Danube,  and  still  more  by  the  Persians  in  the  East. 
It  was  in  the  reign  of  Justinian  that  we  first  began  to 
hear  of  the  Turks.  That  name  does  not  mean  those 
particular  Turks  who  made  their  way  into  the  Empire 
long  afterwards,  and  who  hold  Constantinople  still. 
The  Turks  with  whom  we  have  now  to  do  belonged 
to  other  branches  of  the  great  Turkish  race,  a.  race 
which  is  perhaps  the  most  widely  spread  of  all  the 
Turanian  races  of  Asia,  and  of  the  different  branches 
of  which  we  shall  often  hear  again.  Another  Tura- 
nian people,  the  Avars,  also  appear  on  the  borders  of 
the  Empire  at  this  time,  and  several  Emperors, 
especially  Maurice,  \v\\o  reigned  from  582  to  602,  had 
much  ado  to  defend  their  northern  frontier  against 
them.  Meanwhile  the  Persians  were  at  the  height  of 
their  power  ;  and,  under  another  Ckosroes,  a  grandson 
of  Chosroes  called  Nushirvan,  they  bade  fair  to 
subdue  all  the  Eastern  provinces  of  the  Empire. 
Between  the  years  611  and  615  the  Persian  armies 
overran  the  whole  of  Syria,  Egypt,  and  Asia,  reaching 
to  the  Hellespont,  and  encamping  at  Chalkedon  within 
sight  of  Constantinople.  The  Empire  was  then  ruled 
by  Heraclius,  one  of  the  greatest  names  in  the  whole 
list  of  Roman  Emperors.  He  had  been  Exarch  or 
Governor  of  Africa,  and  had  risen  to  the  throne  by 
destroying  Phocas,  who  had  rebelled  and  murdered 
the  Emperor  Maurice.  For  a  while  he  seemed  to  d« 


ii6      THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  EAST.  [CHA* 

nothing  to  stop  the  Persian  invasions  ;  but  at  last  he 
arose  ;  he  restored  the  old  discipline  of  the  Roman 
armies,  and  in  a  series  of  great  campaigns,  from  620 
to  628,  he  altogether  broke  the  Persian  power,  and 
won  back  all  that  Chosroes  had  conquered.  But, 
while  the  Romans  and  Persians  were  thus  dis- 
puting for  the  dominion  of  Asia,  the  Empire  was 
again  cut  short  in  the  West,  for  the  Gothic  Kings  now 
won  back  the  Roman  province  in  Spain  ;  and  it  was 
presently  cut  short  in  the  East  in  a  far  more  terrible 
way.  For  a  power  was  now  arising  which  was  to 
overthrow  the  Persians  and  Goths  altogether,  and  to 
strike  a  deadly  blow  at  the  power  of  Rome. 

4.  Rise  of  the  Saracens. — We  now  come  to  the 
rise  of  a  great  Semitic  power,  the  only  Semitic  power 
which  has  played  any  great  part  in  history  since  the 
time  of  the  great  dominion  of  Carthage.  For  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  the  Persians,  though  so  widely 
cut  off  from  their  Western  brethren,  were  just  as 
much  Aryans  as  the  Italians,  Greeks,  or  Teutons 
We  also  come  to  the  rise  of  a  new  religion,  the  last 
of  the  three  great  religions  which  have  come  out  from 
among  the  Semitic  nations,  and  all  of  which  taught 
men  that  there  is  but  one  God,  and  bade  them  to 
keep  from  the  worship  of  idols.  First  came  Judaism, 
then  Christianity,  and  now  the  religion  of  Mahomet. 
Mahomet  was  an  Arab  of  Mecca,  the  holy  city  of 
Arabia,  where  he  was  born  in  569.  He  gave  himself 
out  for  a  prophet,  and  taught  that,  though  both  the 
Jewish  and  the  Christian  religion  were  sent  from  God, 
yet  he  had  himself  received  a  revelation  more  perfect 
than  either.  In  his  own  country  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Mahomet  was  a  great  reformer.  He  swept 
away  the  idolatry  of  the  Arabs  ;  he  greatly  reformed 
their  laws  and  manners,  and  gathered  their  scattered 
tribes  into  one  nation.  In  his  early  days  he  had  to 
bear  niurh  persecution  ;  but,  as  he  grew  powerful,  he 
began  to  teach  that  his  new  religion  was  to  be  forced 


vi.]          THE  PERSIANS  AND  SARACENS.  n« 

upon  all  men  by  the  sword.  So  the  Arabs,  or  Saracens 
as  they  are  also  called,  as  soon  as  they  had  embraced 
the  faith  of  Mahomet,  held  it  to  be  their  duty  to  spiead 
their  faith  everywhere,  which  in  fact  meant  to  conqnei 
the  whole  world.  They  everywhere  gave  men  the 
choice  of  three  things,  Koran,  tribute,  or  sword;  that 
is,  they  called  on  all  men  either  to  believe  in  Mahomet 
and  to  accept  the  Koran,  a  book  which  contained 
his  revelations,  to  submit  to  the  Saracens  and  pay 
tribute,  or  else  to  fight  against  them  if  they  could. 
By  these  means  the  religion  of  Mahomet  was  spread 
over  a  large  part  of  Asia  and  Africa,  and  we  shall  see 
that  it  made  its  way  into  Europe  also.  As  Christianity 
became  the  religion  of  the  Empire  and  of  the  nations 
which  learned  their  civilization  from  either  the  Old 
or  the  New  Rome,  so  Mahometanism  became  the 
religion  of  the  Arabs,  and  of  those  nations  who  were 
conquered  by  them  or  learned  their  civilization  from 
them.  We  may  call  it  the  religion  of  the  East,  as  fai 
as  we  have  to  do  with  the  East,  just  as  Christianity 
is  the  religion  of  the  West.  It  has  spread  at  different 
times  as  far  as  from  Spain  to  India.  The  people  of 
all  the  countries  which  were  conquered  by  the 
Saracens  and  other  Mahometan  powers  had  either  to 
embrace  the  Mahometan  religion  or  else  to  buy  the 
right  to  practise  their  own,  whether  Christian  or 
heathen,  by  the  payment  of  tribute. 

5.  Wars  between  the  Saracens  and 
Romans. — As  soon  as  all  Arabia  had  been  joined 
together  under  the  authority  of  Mahomet,  he  and  his 
followers  began  to  spread  their  power  over  the  neigh- 
bouring countries  ;  that  is,  of  course,  mainly  over  the 
dominions  of  Rome  and  Persia.  Mahomet  himself 
died  in  632,  before  any  serious  attack  was  made  upon 
either,  and  he  was  succeeded  in  his  power  by  rulers 
called  his  Caliphs  or  Successors,  the  first  of  whom  was 
his  father-in- law  Abu-Bekr.  The  Caliphs  were  at  once 
spiritual  and  temporal  rulers,  much  the  same  as  if  in 


n8      THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  LV  THE  EAST.    [CHAB 

Christendom  the  same  man  had  been  Pope  and  Em- 
peror at  once.  Under  the  first  two  Caliphs  Abu-Bekr 
and  Omar,  the  Roman  provinces  of  Syria  and  Egypt 
were  conquered  between  the  years  632  and  639.  Now 
it  should  be  remembered  that  these  two  were  the 
provinces  in  which  Greek  and  Roman  civilization  had 
never  thoroughly  taken  root,  where  the  mass  of  the 
people  still  kept  their  old  languages,  and  where  men 
were  always  falling  away  into  forms  of  belief  which 
were  counted  heretical  according  to  the  faith  both  of 
the  Old  and  New  Rome.  In  these  provinces  there- 
fore men  may  well  have  deemed  that  they  had  little 
to  lose  by  a  change  of  rulers.  It  followed  then  that, 
though  the  Saracens  had  to  fight  several  hard  battles 
against  the  Roman  armies  in  Syria,  yet  they  met  with 
no  general  resistance  from  the  whole  people,  and  in 
Egypt  they  met  with  no  resistance  at  all.  The  great 
cities  of  Antioch  and  Alexandria,  as  well  as  Jerusalem, 
were  thus  lost  to  the  Empire.  But  in  the  lands  on 
this  side  of  Mount  Tauros,  where  the  influence  of 
Greek  culture  and  Roman  law  was  more  deep  and 
abiding,  the  Saracens  never  gained  any  lasting  footing. 
They  often  invaded  the  country,  and  twice,  in  673 
and  716,  they  besieged  Constantinople  itself,  but  they 
made  no  abiding  conquests.  In  Africa  too,  which 
had  been  far  more  thoroughly  Romanized  than  Syria 
and  Egypt,  they  met  with  a  long  resistance.  Their 
invasions  began  in  647,  but  Carthage  was  not  taken 
nil  698,  and  the  whole  country  was  not  fully  subdued 
nil  709.  From  no  part  of  the  Empire  have  all  traces 
either  of  the  Roman  dominion  or  of  the  Teutonic 
settlement  of  the  Vandals  been  so  utterly  swept  away  as 
/rom  Africa.  From  Africa  in  7 10  the  Saracens  crossed 
into  Spain,  and  in  about  three  years  they  subdued 
tne  whole  land,  except  where  the  Christians  still  held 
out  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  the  North.  They 
conquered  also  a  small  part  of  Gaul,  namely  the  pro- 
vince of  Narbonne  or  Septimania.  But  this  was  the 


n. J  EXTENT  OF  THE  CALIPHATE.  119 

end  of  their  conquests  in  Western  Europe.  In  732 
they  were  defeated  in  the  great  battle  of  Tours  by 
the  Frank  Charles  Martd,  of  whom  we  shall  presently 
hear  again.  In  755  they  were  altogether  driven  out  of 
Gaul,  but  it  took  more  than  seven  hundred  years  more 
to  drive  them  out  of  the  whole  of  Spain. 

6.  The  Saracen  Conquests  in  the  East. — 
The  Saracens  thus  lopped  off  the  Eastern  and 
Southern  provinces  of  the  Empire,  so  that  the 
Romans  no  longer  held  anything  in  Africa,  nor  any- 
thing in  Asia  beyond  Mount  Tauros.  Meanwhile 
they  were  pressing  on  with  equal  vigour  against  the 
other  great  empire  of  Persia.  In  about  nineteen 
years,  from  632  to  651,  the  whole  kingdom  of  Persia 
vas  conquered,  and  the  native  dynasty  of  the  Sas- 
wnides,  which  had  reigned  in  Persia  since  the  time 
of  Arfaxerxes,  came  to  an  end.  Persia  now  gradually 
became  a  Mahometan  country.  The  Saracens  thence 
pressed  northwards  and  eastwards  into  Sind,  the  most 
western  part  of  India,  and  into  the  Turkish  lands 
beyond  the  Oxus.  For  a  short  time  the  whole  of  this 
vast  dominion  held  together,  and  a  single  Caliph  was 
obeyed  in  Spain  and  in  Sind.  But,  before  long,  disputes 
and  civil  wars  arose  among  the  Saracens  themselves, 
as  to  the  right  succession  of  the  Caliphate,  and  in 
755  their  empire  was  divided,  and  was  never  joined 
together  again.  Spain  was  lost,  and  in  the  East  the 
Turkish  tribes  were  pressing  into  the  Saracenic  empire, 
very  much  in  the  same  way  in  which  the  Teutonic 
tribes  had  pressed  into  the  Empire  of  Rome.  The 
governors  of  the  different  provinces  gradually  made 
themselves  independent,  and  various  dynasties,  chiefly 
Turkish,  arose,  whose  obedience  to  the  Caliph  became 
quite  nominal.  Various  sects  also  arose  among  the 
Mahometans,  just  as  they  arose  among  the  Christians, 
and  each  sect  looked  on  the  others  as  heretics.  There 
were  opposition  Caliphs  in  Spain  and  in  Egypt;  but 
those  who  gave  themselves  out  as  the  orthodox  fot 


lao      THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  EAST.     [CHAP. 

lowers  of  Mahomet  always  looked  up  to  the  Caliph 
who  reigned  at  Bagdad.  So  the  Caliphs  may  be  looked 
on  as  keeping  something  like  the  power  of  a  Pope 
after  they  had  lost  the  power  of  an  Emperor. 

7.  The  Loss  of  Italy. — The  descendants  of 
Heraclius  went  on  reigning  till  about  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century.  Then  came  a  time  of  confusion,  till 
at  last,  in  718,  the  Empire  fell  to  a  valiant  man  named 
Leo,  a  native  of  Jsauria,  whose  descendants  reigned 
after  him  till  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century.  The 
second  siege  of  Constantinople  by  the  Saracens  was 
then  going  on,  and  it  was  mainly  owing  to  his  valour 
and  wisdom  that  the  invaders  were  beaten  back.  This 
defeat  of  the  Saracens  by  Leo  is  really  one  of  the 
greatest  events  in  the  world's  history ;  for,  if  Constan- 
tinople had  been  taken  by  the  Mahometans  before 
the  nations  of  Western  Europe  had  at  all  grown  up,  it 
would  seem  as  if  the  Christian  religion  and  European 
civilization  must  have  been  swept  away  from  the  earth. 
But,  if  Leo  thus  secured  the  Empire  towards  the  East, 
his  dealing  in  religious  matters  did  much  to  weaken 
its  power  in  the  West  Though  Spain  and  Africa  had 
been  lost,  the  Emperors  still  kept  Rome  and  all  that 
part  of  Italy  which  was  not  conquered  by  the  Lom- 
bards, as  well  as  all  the  great  islands  of  Sicily,  Sardinia, 
and  Corsica,  The  Italian  possessions  of  the  Empire 
were  ruled  by  an  Exarch  or  governor,  who  lived,  not 
at  Rome  but  at  Ravenna.  Thus,  as  neither  the 
Emperor  nor  his  deputy  lived  at  Rome,  the  power 
of  the  Popes  or  Bishops  of  Rome  grew  greater  and 
greater.  At  last,  during  the  reign  of  Leo,  another 
religious  dispute  broke  out,  about  the  worship  or 
reverence  paid  to  images  and  pictures  in  churches. 
This  worship  Leo  held  to  be  idolatrous,  and  so  did  his 
son  Constantine,  called  Kopronymos,  who  succeeded 
him  and  reigned  from  741  to  775,  and  who  also  was  a 
valiant  warrior  against  the  Saracens.  The  party  who 
thought  with  them  were  called  Iconoclasts  or  breakers 


EARLY  CALIPHS 


20  Longitude  East  SOfron 


Benwich  40 


Fisk  4  See,  N.  Y 


*!.]  THE  LOSS  OF  ITALY.  121 

of  images,  and  there  were  constant  disputes  about  this 
matter  in  the  Eastern  Church  all  through  the  eighth 
and  part  of  the  ninth  century.  But  in  Italy,  when 
the  Emperors  tried  to  put  away  the  worship  and  even 
the  use  of  images,  men  everywhere  withstood  them, 
the  Popes  Gregory  the  Second  and  Gregory  the  Third 
taking  the  lead  against  them.  The  result  was  that 
the  Emperors  lost  all  real  power  in  Rome.  But  they 
kept  Southern  Italy  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  and 
even  at  Rome  their  authority  was  acknowledged  in 
name  down  to  the  end  of  the  eighth  century.  We 
must  now  see  how  even  its  formal  acknowledgment 
came  to  an  end. 

8.  The  Franks  in  Italy. — Meanwhile  the  Lom- 
bards were  extending  their  dominion  in  Italy.  Under 
their  Kings  Liudprand  and  Astolf'  they  took  Ravenna 
and  more  than  once  threatened  Rome.  There  was 
no  hope  of  any  help  coming  from  the  Emperors  at 
Constantinople ;  so  the  Popes  and  the  Roman  people 
sought  for  help  in  quite  a  new  quarter,  namely  at  the 
hands  of  Pippin  the  King  of  the  Franks.  The  Franks 
had  now  long  been  the  ruling  people  of  Germany  and 
Gaul.  The  descendants  of  Chlodwig,  the  German 
King  and  Roman  Consul,  went  on  reigning,  though 
their  dominions  were  often  divided  into  several  small 
kingdoms,  and  in  the  south  of  Gaul,  especially  in 
Aquitaine,  they  had  but  little  real  power.  These 
descendants  of  Chlodwig,  the  Mentrings  or  Moro- 
unngians  as  they  were  called,  were  one  of  the  worst 
dynasties  that  ever  reigned  ;  few  parts  of  history  are 
more  full  of  crimes,  public  and  private,  than  the 
accounts  of  the  early  Prankish  Kings.  Latterly  they 
became  weak  as  well  as  wicked,  and  all  real  power 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Karlings,  who  governed 
by  the  title  of  Mayors  of  the  Palace.  They  carne  from 
the  Eastern,  the  most  German,  part  of  the  Frankish 
dominions,  and  their  rise  to  power  was  almost  like 
another  German  conquest  of  GauL  One  of  these 


122      THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE  IN  THE  EAST.     [CHAP 

Mayors  was  Karl  cr  Charles,  called  Martrt  or  the 
Hammer,  who  won  the  great  victory  over  the  Saracens 
at  Tours  in  732.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
Pit  fin,  who  in  753  was  chosen  King  of  the  Franks, 
the  Merowingian  King  Chilpcric  being  deposed,  for 
it  was  thought  foolish  that  the  title  of  King  should 
belong  to  one  man  and  the  kingly  power  to  another. 
Thus  began  the  dynasty  of  the  Karlings,  the  sons  oj 
Charles,  the  second  Frankish  dynasty  in  Germany  and 
Gaul.  Of  their  doings  in  Germany  and  Gaul  we  shall 
speak  presently  ;  we  have  now  to  do  with  them  in 
Italy.  King  Pippin  came  at  the  prayer  of  Pope 
Stephen  the  Third,  and  saved  Rome  from  the  Lom- 
bards and  won  back  from  them  the  Exarchate,  that  is 
the  country  about  Ravenna,  which  they  had  conquered. 
He  became  the  virtual  sovereign  of  Rome,  but,  as  it 
was  still  not  thought  right  wholly  to  throw  away  the 
authority  of  the  Emperors,  he  was  called,  not  King  or 
Emperor,  but  Patrician.  That  word  had  quite  changed 
its  meaning  since  it  had  meant  the  highest  class  of  the 
Roman  people  ;  it  was  now  used  rather  vaguely,  and  it 
sometimes  meant  the  governor  of  a  province  ;  this  last 
must  have  been  the  sense  in  which  they  used  it  now. 
Pippin's  son,  Karl  or  Charles  the  Great,  altogether 
conquered  the  Lombard  kingdom  in  774.  He  then 
called  himself  King  oj  the  franks  and  Lombards  and 
Patrician  of  the  Romans.  As  such,  he  was  ruler  of  all 
Italy,  except  the  part  in  the  south  which  the  Emperors 
still  kept.  The  Franks  were  thus  the  head  people  in 
all  Western  Christendom. 

9.  Charles  elected  Emperor. — But  a  greater 
honour  still  was  in  store  for  the  Franks  and  their 
King.  In  797,  the  Emperor  Constantine  the  Sixth, 
the  grandson  of  Constantine  Kopronymos,  was  de- 
posed by  his  mother  Eirene,  who  put  out  his  eyes  and 
reigned  in  his  stead.  This  gave  the  Pope  and  the 
people  of  Rome  a  good  excuse  for  throwing  off  the 
authority  of  the  Emperors  at  Constantinople  altogether. 


ri.]  CHARLES  THE  GREAT.  123 

They  now  said  that  a  woman  could  not  be  Caesar  and 
Augustus,  and  that  the  Old  Rome  had  as  good  a  right 
to  choose  the  Emperor  as  the  New.  So  in  the  year  800 
the  Romans  of  the  Old  Rome  chose  their  Patrician 
Charles  to  be  Emperor,  and  he  was  crowned  by  Pope 
Z<?0as  Charles  Augustus,  Emperor  of  the  Romans.  The 
Empire  was  now  finally  divided,  and  for  many  ages 
there  was  one  Emperor  reigning  in  the  East  and 
another  in  the  West,  each  claiming  to  be  the  true 
Roman  Emperor.  The  Eastern  Emperors  never  got 
back  Rome  again,  nor  any  part  of  Northern  Italy,  but 
they  kept,  and  sometimes  enlarged,  their  dominions  in 
Southern  Italy,  where  the  Greek  tongue  was  still  not 
wholly  forgotten,  for  more  than  two  hundred  years 
longer. 

10.  Summary. — Thus,  through  the  sixth,  seventh, 
and  eighth  centuries,  there  was  only  one  Emperor, 
\vlio  reigned  at  Constantinople.  Under  Justinian  a 
very  large  part  of  the  Empire  was  won  back  again 
from  the  Goths  and  Vandals.  But,  in  the  course  of 
rhe  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  a  great  part  of  the 
recovered  provinces,  together  with  Syria  and  Egypt, 
were  lost  again.  The  Lombards  established  themselves 
in  Italy,  and  the  Saracens  overthrew  the  kingdom  of 
Persia,  conquered  the  Eastern  and  African  provinces 
of  Rome,  and  established  themselves  in  Spain.  In  the 
eighth  century  the  dispute  about  images  led  to  the 
gradual  separation  of  Rome  and  what  was  left  to  the 
Empire  in  Northern  Italy,  and  in  its  last  year  Rome 
parted  off  altogether  from  the  Eastern  Empire,  and 
chose  the  Frank  Charles  as  separate  Emperor  of  tht 
West. 


124  THE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE. 

CHAPTER  VII. 
THE   PRANKISH    EMPIRE. 

Divison  of  the  Empire;  the  Western  Empire  held  by  tfu 
Prankish  kings  (l) — the  Onimiad  Caliphs ;  accession 
of  the  Abbassides  (2) — division  of  tfte  Caliphate;  rela- 
tions between  the  two  Caliphates  and  the  two  Empires 
(2) — conquests  and  losses  of  the  Saracens  (2) — reign  oj 
Charles  the  Great ;  extent  of  his  Empire  (3) — division 
of  the  prankish  Kingdoms  ;  Kingdoms  of  Germany, 
Lotharingia,  Karolingia,  Burgundy,  and  Italy ;  differ- 
ent meanings  of  the  word  Francia  (4)— -final  division 
of  the  Empire ;  end  of  the  Karlings  in  Germany  (5) 
— Odo  King  of  the  West-Franks ;  shifting  of  the 
Kingdom  between  Laon  and  Paris  (6) — Duchies  of 
Prance,  Burgundy,  and  Aquitaine;  distinction  between, 
Northern  and  Southern  Gaul  (6) — Hugh  Capet  elected 
King;  beginning  of  the  modern  kingdom  of  France 
(6) — settlements  of  the  English  in  Britain;  their  con- 
version to  Christianity  (7) — the  Northman;  their  in- 
vasions of  Gaul  and  Britain  (8) — supremacy  of '  Wessex 
in  Britain;  invasion  and  settlements  of  the  Danes; 
formation  of  the  Kingdom  of  England  (9) — settlements 
of  the  Northmen  in  Gmil ;  settlement  of  Rolf  at 
Rouen;  growth  of  the  Duchy  of  Normandy  (10) — 
Summary  (n). 

i.  The  Division  of  the  Empire. — The  Roman 
Empire  was  now  finally  divided,  and  it  might  seem  to 
have  altogether  passed  away  from  the  true  Romans. 
The  Emperors  of  the  West  from  this  time  were 
Germans  ;  they  did  not  live  much  at  Rome  itself,  and 
their  native  language  was  German,  though  Latin 
remained  the  language  of  law,  government,  and  re- 
ligion. In  the  Eastern  Empire  the  tongue  commonly 
spoken  was  Greek ;  Latin  had  gone  out  of  use  even 
as  an  official  language-  ;  and,  from  the  time  of  the  loss 
of  Rome  and  Ravenna,  the  Roman  Empire  of  the 


VII.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  EMPIRE.  125 

East  answered  pretty  well  to  those  parts  of  Europe 
and  Asia  which  had  thoroughly  accepted  the  Greek 
language  and  Greek  civilization.  Still  each  Empire 
gave  itself  out  as  the  continuation  of  the  old  Empire, 
and  the  old  Imperial  titles  went  on.  Only,  while  in 
the  East  the  Emperor  was  a  Roman  Emperor  and 
nothing  else,  in  the  West  the  Emperor  was  King  of  tht 
franks  as  well  as  Emperor  of  the  Romans.  In  truth, 
the  choice  of  a  German  King  to  be  Roman  Emperoi 
was  the  greatest  of  all  changes,  and  it  was  really  the 
beginning  of  quite  a  new  state  of  things.  But  men  at 
the  time  talked  as  if  things  had  gone  regularly  on,  and 
they  spoke  of  Charles  the  Great  as  the  lawful  succes- 
sor of  Constantine  the  Sixth.  And  in  this  way.  through 
the  union  of  the  Roman  and  German  crowns,  a  large 
territory  was  now  held  to  belong  to  the  Roman 
Empire  which  had  never  belonged  to  the  Empire  in 
old  times.  And,  though  the  new  line  of  German 
Emperors  lived  but  little  in  their  old  capital  of  Rome, 
yet,  for  seven  hundred  years  after  the  election  of 
Charles,  it  was  held  that  no  king  had  a  right  to  be 
called  Emperor  or  Cczsar  till  he  had  been  crowned  at 
Rome  by  the  Pope.  The  Eastern  Emperors  mean- 
while kept  Constantinople,  or  the  New  Rome,  as  their 
capital,  and  they  were  crowned  by  Patriarchs  of  Con- 
stantinople in  the  church  of  Saint  Sophia. 

2.  Division  of  the  Caliphate. — We  mentioned  in 
the  last  chapter  that,  about  fifty  years  before  the  final 
division  of  the  Empire,  the  Mahometan  power  was 
divided  in  much  the  same  way.  The  first  four  Caliphs, 
Abu-Bekr,  Omar,  Othman,  and  Alt',  were  all  among 
the  immediate  friends  or  kinsmen  of  Mahomet.  Then 
came  the  dynasty  of  the  Ommiads,  who  reigned  at 
Damascus.  But  in  750  they  were  overthrown  by  the 
descendants  of  Abbas,  the  uncle  of  Mahomet,  who 
founded  the  dynasty  of  the  Abbassides,  by  whom  the 
seat  of  their  dominion  was  after  a  while  moved  to  Bag- 
dadon  the  Tigris.  But  a  prince  of  the  Ommiad  family, 


126  THE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE.  [CHAP. 

Abd-al-rahman  by  name,  escaped  to  Spain,  and  was 
the  founder  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Ommiads  of  Cordova. 
These  princes  at  first  called  themselves  only  Emir  at 
prince,  but  afterwards  they  took  the  title  of  Caliph, 
ana  from  the  beginning  they  were  the  enemies  of  the 
Abbassides.  Thus  there  were  two  rival  Empires  among 
the  Christians  and  two  rival  Caliphates  among  the 
Mahometans  ;  and,  as  was  to  be  expected,  each  of  the 
Christian  powers  was  at  enmity  with  the  Mahometan 
power  which  was  its  own  neighbour  and  on  good  terms 
with  the  Mahometan  power  at  a  distance.  The  Caliphs 
of  Cordova  were  the  natural  enemies  of  the  Western 
Empire,  and  the  Caliphs  of  Bagdad  were  the  natural 
enemies  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  But  there  was  com- 
monly peace  and  friendship  between  the  Western 
Empire  and  the  Eastern  Caliphate  and  between  the 
Eastern  Empire  and  the  Western  Caliphate.  And, 
just  as  the  two  Empires  not  only  parted  asunder  from 
one  another,  but  each  split  up  into  various  kingdoms, 
so  the  two  Caliphates  gradually  split  up  also.  Many 
Mahometan  powers  arose,  which  professed  at  most  n 
nominal  allegiance  to  the  Caliph  either  at  Bagdad  or 
Cordova.  And  some  of  these  powers  went  on  con- 
quering at  the  expense  of  the  Christians.  In  the  course 
of  the  ninth  century  independent  Saracen  powers  arose 
in  the  great  Mediterranean  islands  of  Sta'/y  and  Crete, 
which  had  up  to  that  time  belonged  to  the  Eastern 
Empire.  In  Spain  itself  the  Saracens  never  conquered 
quite  the  whole  of  the  country,  as  the  Christians  always 
maintained  their  independence  in  the  mountains  of  the 
North,  whence  they  gradually  won  the  whole  peninsula 
back  again.  In  the  ninth  century  then  the  four  great 
powers  of  the  civilized  world  were  the  two  Chrisiiun 
Empires  and  the  two  Mahometan  Caliphates.  The 
British  Islands  were  independent  of  all,  standing  alone 
in  being  both  Christian  and  independent.  The  other 
parts  of  Europe  which  acknowledged  neither  Emperoi 
nor  Caliph  were  still  heathen  and  barbarous. 


Vii.]    DOMINIONS  OF  CHARLES  THE  GREAT.      12-) 

3.  Charles  the  Great. — The  first  Prankish  King 
who  became  Roman  Emperor,  the  f  rst  man  of  Teutonic 
blood  who  was  called  Caesar  and  Augustus,  was,  as  we 
have  said,  Charles  the  son  of  Pippin,  called  Karolus 
Magnus  or  Charles  the  Great.  In  after  times  he  became 
a  great  subject  of  French  romance,  in  which  he  is 
called  by  the  French  name  of  Charlemagne.  Under  him 
the  power  of  the  Franks  rose  to  its  highest  pitch. 
Francia,  the  land  of  the  Franks,  took  in  all  Central 
Germany  and  Northern  Gaul.  Besides  this,  Charles 
more  thoroughly  established  the  Frankish  dominion 
over  Southern  Gaul  and  Southern  Germany,  that  is 
over  Aquitaine  and  Bavaria,  and  also  over  Armorica, 
the  north-western  corner  of  Gaul.  Here  a  great  num- 
ber of  the  Welsh  from  the  Isle  of  Britain  had  settled 
when  their  country  was  conquered  by  the  English. 
Thus  the  land  was  known  as  the  Lesser  Britain  or 
Brttanny,  and  the  Celtic  language,  which  had  perhaps 
never  quite  died  out,  was  kept"  up  by  their  coming. 
Charles  also  subdued  the  German  people  to  the  north 
of  his  own  Francia,  that  is  our  own  kinsmen,  the 
Saxons  who  had  stayed  behind  in  Germany  and  had 
not  gone  into  Britain.  They  were  still  heathens,  but 
he  forced  them  to  embrace  Christianity.  He  thus 
became  master  of  all  Germany  and  Gaul.  And,  as  we 
have  seen,  as  Emperor  and  King  of  the  Lombards  he 
held  the  greatest  part  of  Italy,  and  he  had  also  Spain 
as  far  as  the  Ebro.  He  had  also  much  fighting  with  the 
nations  to  the  east  and  north  of  Germany.  To  the  north 
lay  the  Scandinavian  nations,  called  the  Northmen,  of 
whom  we  shall  have  presently  to  speak  more  at  large. 
Of  these  Charles  had  a  good  deal  of  fighting  with  the 
Danes,  and  he  brought  them  into  some  degree  of  sub- 
mission to  the  Empire.  To  the  north-east  of  Germany 
beyond  the  Elbe  lay  the  Slavonic  nations  .vho  were 
spoken  of  in  the  first  chapter,  who  grew  up  into  the 
different  nations  of  the  Wends,  the  Poles,  and  the 
Czechs  or  Bohemians,  all  of  whom  had  at  different  times 


1 28  THE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE.  [CHAP 

to  make  submission  to  the  Emperors,  and  a  large  par1 
of  whose  country  has  long  formed  part  of  Germany. 
To  the  south-east  were  other  Slavonic  nations  who  had 
been  allowed  to  settle  on  the  frontiers  of  the  Eastern 
Empire.  Between  these  two  branches  of  the  Slaves, 
in  a  great  part  of  modern  Hungary,  the  Turanian 
people  of  the  Avars  had  fixed  themselves.  With  all 
these  border  nations  the  Emperor  Charles  had  much 
fighting,  and  most  of  them  were  brought  into  more  or 
less  of  submission.  Under  him  then  the  Western  Empire 
was  at  a  greater  height  of  power  than  it  had  ever  been 
since  the  division  after  the  death  of  Theodosius,  and 
in  all  his  vast  dominions  Charles  did  what  he  could  to 
encourage  learning  and  religion  by  promoting  learned 
men,  founding  bishopricks  and  monasteries,  and  mak- 
ing laws  for  the  government  of  his  Empire.  He  first 
united  Germany  under  one  head,  and  he  won  the  rank 
of  Roman  Emperor  for  the  German  King.  Like 
Constantine  and  Theodosius,  he  thought  of  dividing 
the  Empire  among  his  sons,  but,  as  all  his  sons,  except 
Lewis,  surnamed  the  Pious,  died  before  him,  the  whole 
Empire  passed  at  his  death  in  814  to  that  one  son 
Lewis. 

4.  The  Prankish  Kingdoms. — So  great  a  do- 
minion as  had  been  brought  together  under  Charles 
the  Great  needed  a  man  like  Charles  himself  to  keep 
it  together.  The  second  Frankish  Emperor  Lewis 
was  a  good  but  weak  man,  and  his  sons  were  always 
rebelling  against  their  father  and  quarrelling  with  one 
another.  Several  divisions  of  the  Empire  were  made 
during  his  lifetime,  and  after  his  death  his  dominions 
were,  after  much  fighting,  divided  in  843  among  his 
sons  Jj)thar,  L(U>is,  and  Charles.  Lothar  was  Em- 
peror, and,  as  such,  he  reigned  in  Italy,  and  he  was 
meant  to  have  at  least  a  nominal  supremacy  over  his 
brothers.  For  his  own  kingdom  he  took  Italy  and  a 
long  narrow  strip  of  territory  reaching  from  the 
Mediterranean  to  the  Northern  Ocean,  and  taking  ir 


EUROPE 

under 

CHARLES  THE  GREAT 


Eastern  Empire 
Western  Empire 


Western  Caliphate 
Eastern  Caliphate 


I 


10      Longitude  East  f  rot 


vir.]  THE  PRANKISH  KINGDOMS.  129 

what  is  now  Provence  at  one  end  and  Holland  at  the 
other.  Part  of  his  kingdom  spoke  German  and  part 
Romance.  To  the  east  of  him  his  brother  Lewis, 
who  is  called  tJie  German,  reigned  over  a  purely 
German  kingdom,  the  lands  between  the  Rhine  and 
the  Elbe.  Charles  reigned  in  Gaul  to  the  West  of 
Lothar.  On  Lothar's  death  Italy  passed  to  his  son 
the  Emperor  Lewis  the  Second,  while  a  second  Lothar 
reigned  in  the  borderland  of  Germany  and  Gaul. 
From  having  been  the  kingdom  of  two  Lothars,  this 
land  was  called  Lotharingia,  and  part  of  it  still  keeps 
the  name  in  the  form  of  Lothringen  or  Lorraine.  Just 
in  the  same  way  Charles's  kingdom  was  at  first  called 
Karolingia,  only  the  one  name  has  gone  out  of  use, 
while  the  other  has  lived  on.  But  the  different  king- 
doms which  were  now  formed  had  no  regular  names. 
All  the  different  Kings  were' Kings  of  tJie  Franks, 
much  as  in  earlier  times  there  had  been  several 
Emperors  at  once.  There  now  came  a  time  of  great 
confusion,  during  which  the  different  kingdoms  were 
split  up  and  joined  together  again  in  various  ways. 
But  there  was  still  always  one  King  who  was  Emperor, 
though  he  soon  lost  all  real  power  over  the  others. 
And  all  the  Kings  were  of  the  house  of  the  Karlings, 
save  only  in  the  Burgundian  land  between  the  Rhone, 
the  Saone,  and  the  Alps,  where  Kings  of  other  houses 
reigned,  and  which  was  called  the  Kingdom  of  Bur- 
gundy or  Aries.  At  last,  in  884,  all  the  Frankish 
kingdoms  except  Burgundy  were  joined  together 
under  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fat.  But  in  887  all 
his  kingdoms  agreed  to  depose  him,  and  each  king- 
dom chose  a  King  of  its  own.  And  the  kingdoms 
which  were  now  formed  began  to  answer  more  nearly 
to  real  divisions  of  nations  and  language  than  had 
hitherto  been  the  case.  Thus  from  this  time  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Franks  were  never  a.gain  united, 
and  the  word  Franda  henceforth  has  two  meanings. 
Eastern  or  Teutonic  Franda  was  the  old  Frankish  land 


1 30  THE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE.  [CHAI> 

in  Germany,  forming  part  of  the  Eastern  Kingdom. 
Western  or  Latin  Francia  was  the  land  between  the 
Loire  and  the  Seine,  where  men  spoke  Romance  and 
not  German,  and  which  formed  part  of  the  Western 
Kingdom.  Between  them  lay  Lotharirigia,  the  border 
land,  taking  in  modern  Belgium.  This  had  no  longer 
a  King  of  its  own,  but  it  was  often  disputed  between 
the  Eastern  and  Western  Kings,  the  Kings  of  Germany 
and  Karolingia.  In  South-eastern  Gaul  the  Burgun- 
dian  Kingdom  went  on,  sometimes  forming  one 
kingdom,  sometimes  two.  And  in  Italy,  during  the 
first  half  of  the  tenth  century,  there  were  several  rival 
Kings,  some  of  whom  got  to  be  crowned  Emperors. 
But  they  had  no  power  out  of  Italy,  and  not  much  in 
it.  And  it  must  be  remembered  that  all  this  time 
Southern  Italy  still  belonged  to  the  Eastern  Emperors, 
and  that  Sicily  had  been  conquered  by  the  Saracens. 

5.  The  End  of  the  Karlings  in  Germany.- — 
After  the  division  in  887  the  Eastern  or  German 
Kingdom  still  stayed  for  a  while  in  the  family  of 
Charles  the  Great.  For  the  East-Franks  chose  as  their 
King  Arnulf,  who  was  a  Karling,  though  not  by  lawful 
descent.  But  the  Western  Franks  in  Karolingia 
chose  Odo,  Count  of  Paris,  who  had  been  very  valiant 
in  defending  his  city  against  an  attack  of  the  North- 
men, of  whom  we  shall  hear  presently.  But  King 
Arnulf  was  the  head  King,  and  King  Odo  of  Paris 
did  Iwmage  to  him  for  his  crown  ;  that  is,  he  became 
his  man,  and  promised  to  be  faithful  to  him.  Arnulf 
afterwards  went  to  Rome  and  was  crowned  Emperor 
But  the  German  crown  did  not  stay  long  among  the 
Karlings.  The  line  oT  Arnulf  died  out  in  his  son 
Lewis,  called  the  Child,  and  then  the  Eastern  King- 
dom fell  to  men  of  other  families,  connected  with  the 
Karlings  only  in  the  female  line  or  not  at  all.  From 
this  time  the  Kingdom  of  Germany  went  on  as  a 
separate  kingdom,  but  we  shall  soon  see  that  it  had  a 
great  deal  to  do  with  the  other  kingdoms  which  arose 


V 

EUROPE 

at  the  end  of  the 
NINTH   CENTURY 


gitudc  East    15    from  Greenwich 


m.]  BEGINNING  OF  FRANCE.  \y 

out  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  Prankish  Empire. 
And  it  had  much  to  do  in  other  ways  with  the 
Slavonic  and  Turanian  people  to  the  East,  and  in  the 
end  it  greatly  extended  itself  at  the  cost  of  its 
Slavonic  neighbours. 

6.  Beginning  of  the  Kingdom  of  France. — • 
A."ter  the  election  of  Odo  of  Paris  to  the   Western 
Kingdom,  there  followed  a  hundred  years  of  shift- 
ing to  and  fro  between  his  new  family  and  the  old 
family  of  the  Karlings.     Sometimes  there  was  a  King 
of  one   house   and  sometimes   of  the   other.     The 
Karlings  still  spoke  German,  and,  when  they  held  the 
.dngdom,  their  capital  was  Laon,  in  its  north-eastern 
corner.     The  family  of  Odo  were  called  Dukes  of  the 
French,  and  they  spoke  French,  as  we  may  now  call  the 
Romance  speech  of  Northern  Gaul,  and  their  capital 
,vas  Paris,     Their  Duchy,  the  Duchy  of  France — that 
s,   Western   or  Latin   Francia — was,  even   when  its 
Oukes  were  not  Kings,  the  most  powerful  state  north 
of  the  Loire.     But  whichever  family  held  the  crown. 
.he  Kings  had  very  little  power  south  of  the  Loire. 
^or,  in  these  times  of  confusion,  the  Dukes  and  Counts, 
vho   at  first   were   only  governors   of  the   different 
>rovinces,  both  in  the  Eastern  and  Western  King- 
loins,  had  grown  up  into  hereditary  princes,  paying  a 
nerely   nominal  homage  to   the   King,  whether   he 
eigned  at  Laon  or  Paris.     The  princes  north  of  the 
^oire,   the    Counts    of  Flanders,  the    Dukes   of  the 
\ormans  (of  whom  we   shall   say   more   presently), 
he    native   princes   of  Britanny,  and  the  Dukes  of 
burgundy,  were  often  at  war  with  the  Kings,  and  with 
>ne  another.     These   Dukes  of  Burgundy   held  the 
orthern    part  of  Burgundy,  that  of  which  Dijon  is 
le  capital ;  this  did  not  form  part  of  the  Kingdom 
f  Burgundy,  but  of  the  Western  Kingdom  or  Karol- 
igia.    South  of  the   Loire,  where   men  spoke,  not 
'rench   but  Provencal,  the  Dukes  of  Aquitaine  and 
,  and  the  Counts  of  Toulouse  and  Barcelona 


132  THE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE.  [CHAP 

had  hardly  anything  to  do  with  the  Kings  at  all 
The  most  famous  among  the  Karolingian  King! 
at  Laon  was  Lewis  the  Fourth,  called  From-beyond-sea, 
because  he  had  been  brought  up  by  his  uncle  King 
/Ethelstzn  in  England.  He  had  much  striving  with 
Ilu°;h  the  Great,  Duke  of  the  French,  the  nephew  of 
King  Odo,  who  refused  the  crown  more  than  once, 
but  who  never  had  any  scruple  about  rebelling  against 
the  King.  But  on  the  death  of  the  last  Karolingian 
King  at  Laon,  Lewis  the  Fifth,  Hugh  Capet,  the  son 
of  Hugh  the  Great,  was  chosen  King  in  987.  This 
was  the  real  beginning  of  the  modern  Kingdom  of 
France.  The  Duke  of  the  French  was  now  King  oj 
the  French.  Paris  became  the  capital  of  the  King- 
dom, and,  as  the  Kings  of  the  French  got  hold  of  the 
lands  of  their  vassals  and  neighbours  bit  by  bit,  the 
name  of  France  was  gradually  spread,  as  it  is  now, 
over  the  greater  part  of  Gaul. 

7.  The  English  in  Britain. — We  have  thus 
seen  how  the  kingdoms  and  nations  of  Germany, 
Italy,  Burgundy,  and  France  were  formed  by  the 
breaking  up  of  the  great  Frank ish  Empire.  Mean- 
while the  English  nation  was  growing  up  in  the 
Isle  of  Britain,  which  formed  no  part  of  the  Empire, 
and  which  men  spoke  often  of  as  a  world  of  itself. 
We  have  already  seen  how  the  three  Low-Dutch  tribes, 
the  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes,  settled  in  Britain,  how 
they  drove  the  Britons  or  Welsh  into  the  western  part  of 
the  Island,  and  how,  as  they  gradually  became  one 
people,  the  whole  nation  was  called  Angles  or  English. 
They  formed  a  great  number  of  principalities  in 
Britain,  among  the  chief  of  which  were  the  Kingdom 
of  the  Jutes  in  Kent,  the  oldest  of  all,  the  Kingdom 
of  the  West-Saxons,  which  began  in  what  is  now 
Hampshire  and  gradually  spread  over  all  South- 
western Britain,  the  Kingdom  of  the  Mercians  in  the 
middle  of  England,  and  the  Kingdom  of  the  North- 
umbrians, which,  sometimes  under  one  King,  some 


THE  ENGLISH  IN  BRITAIN.  133 

times  under  two,  stretched  fromthe  Humberto  the  Firth 
of  Forth.  The  Kingdoms  of  the  South-Faxons,  East' 
Saxons,  and  East- Angles  should  also  be  noticed,  but 
they  were  less  powerful  than  the  other  four.  All  these 
kingdoms  had  much  fighting  with  one  another,  as  well 
as  with  the  Britons  or  Welsh  to  the  west  of  them  and 
with  the  other  Celtic  tribes  of  the  Pitts  and  Scots  to 
the  north  beyond  the  Forth.  Sometimes  one  of  theii 
Kings  gained  a  certain  authority  over  the  other  king- 
doms ;  he  was  then  called  a  Brefrvalda  or  Widder  0} 
Britain.  As  we  have  already  said,  the  English  re- 
mained heathens  for  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
after  their  first  settlement  in  Britain.  Then,  in  597,  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great  sent  over  Augustine,  who  converted 
the  Kentish  King  jEthelberht,  who  was  then  Bretwalda  ; 
so  Kent  was  the  first  Christian  kingdom  among  the 
English.  Gradually  all  the  English  kingdoms  were 
converted,  some  by  missionaries  from  Kent  or  straight 
from  Rome,  some  by  the  Scots,  who  were  already 
Christians,  but  none,  it  would  seem,  by  the  Welsh. 
And  presently  the  English  began  themselves  to  send 
missionaries  to  convert  those  of  their  kinsfolk  in  their 
old  land  who  were  still  heathens.  One  of  them, 
Winfrith  or  Bo?iiface,  in  the  time  of  Pippin,  was 
called  the  Apostle  of  Germany.  This  was  quite 
another  way  of  being  converted  from  that  of  the 
Goths  and  Franks  who  embraced  Christianity  while 
they  were  pressing  into  the  Empire.  But,  even  after 
they  became  Christians,  the  English  still  went  on 
making  conquests  from  the  Welsh,  and  also  carrying 
on  wars  among  themselves.  During  the  seventh  and 
eighth  centuries  the  three  great  kingdoms  of  the  West- 
Saxons,  Mercians,  and  Northumbrians  were  ever  striving 
for  the  mastery.  Sometimes  one  had  the  upper  hand 
and  sometimes  the  other ;  but  at  the  beginning  of  the 
ninth  century  the  different  English  kingdoms  began  to 
be  more  closely  united  together,  and  they  had  also  a 
common  enemy  from  without  to  withstand. 


•34  THE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE.  [CHAP. 

8.  The  Northmen. — We  have  already  spoken  of 
the  Aryan  people  in  Northern  Europe,  called  the 
Northmen  or  Scandinavians.  These  were  a  Teutonic 
people,  whose  speech  is  more  nearly  akin  to  the  Low- 
Dutch  than  to  the  High.  They  had  settled  in  the 
great  peninsula  to  the  north-east  of  the  Baltic,  where 
they  were  gradually  making  their  way  against  the 
Turanian  inhabitants,  the  Fins  and  Laps,  and  they 
hid  also  occupied  the  peninsula  called  the  Cimbrie. 
Chersentsos  or  Jutland,  which  is  divided  from  Saxony 
by  the  river  Eider.  In  these  peninsulas  and  the 
neighbouring  islands  they  gradually  formed  three  king- 
doms, those  of  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark.  The 
Danes  in  the  southern  peninsula  had  often  to  yield 
more  or  less  of  submission  to  Charles  the  Great  and 
his  successors.  But  the  Northmen  of  the  northern 
peninsula  never  submitted  to  the  Empire,  and^  indeed 
the  Swedes  had  for  a  long  time  to  come  but  little  to 
do  with  the  general  affairs  of  Europe.  They  had 
enough  to  do  in  striving  with  their  own  Turanian 
neighbours,  and  in  conquests  toward  the  East,  where 
they  came  to  bear  rule  over  the  Slavonic  land  of 
Russia.  But  the  Western  Scandinavians,  the  Danes 
and  the  Norwegians  who  were  more  specially  called 
Northmen,  began,  towards  the  end  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, to  be  fearful  scourges  both  to  Britain  and  to  all 
the  coasts  of  the  Empire.  Even  while  Charles  the 
Great  lived,  they  had  begun  to  sail  about  and  plunder 
in  various  parts  ;  and  after  he  was  dead,  and  when  the 
Empire  began  to  break  in  pieces,  they  were  able  to 
ravage  almost  wherever  they  pleased.  After  a  while 
they  began,  not  only  to  plunder,  but  to  make  settle- 
ments, both  in  Gaul  and  in  Britain.  They  also  settled 
in  Iceland,  in  the  Orkneys  and  in  the  other  islands  near 
Scotland,  in  the  northern  part  of  Scotland  itself,  and 
in  the  towns  on  the  east  coast  of  Ireland.  But  we 
have  most  to  do  with  their  settlements  in  England  and 
in  Northern  Gaul.  For  through  their  settlement  in 


vii.]  FORMATION  OF  ENGLAND.  135 

Gaul  a  new  power  in  Europe  arose,  and,  what  we 
should  hardly  have  looked  for,  their  settlements  in 
England  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  making  of 
the  different  English  kingdoms  in  Britain  into  one. 

9.  Formation  of  the  Kingdom  of  England. — 
We  have  seen  that,  up  to  the  end  of  the  eighth  century, 
the  chief  power  among  the  English  in  Britain  was 
always  passing  from  one  of  the  English  kingdoms 
to  another.  But  at  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century 
it  came  permanently  into  the  hands  of  Wcssex.  This 
was  under  Ecgberht,  who  was  King  of  the  West-Saxons 
from  802  to  837.  He  was  a  friend  of  Charles  the 
Great,  with  whom  he  had  taken  shelter  when  he  was 
banished  from  his  own  country.  It  was  no  doubt  the 
friendship  and  example  of  Charles  which  set  him 
upon  doing  in  Britain  much  the  same  as  Charles  had 
done  in  Germany.  Ecgberht  gradually  brought  all 
the  other  English  kingdoms  and  the  Welsh  both  of 
Cornwall  and  of  what  we  call  Wales,  into  more  or 
less  of  subjection  to  his  own  kingdom  of  the  West- 
Saxons.  Other  Kings  went  on  reigning,  but  they 
were  his  men  and  he  was  their  lord,  like  the  Emperor 
among  the  Kings  and  princes  on  the  mainland.  Thus 
.1  great  step  was  taken  towards  joining  all  the  English 
in  Britain  into  one  kingdom.  But  the  Scots  beyond 
the  Forth  and  the  Northern  Welsh  in  Cumberland 
and  thereabouts  remained  independent,  so  that 
Ecgberht  was  still  far  from  being  master  of  the  whole 
island,  and  presently  the  Danish  invasion  seemed 
likely  to  shatter  the  newly  founded  West-Saxon  power 
altogether.  King  sElfred  or  Alfred,  the  grandson  of 
Ecgberht  and  the  most  famous  of  all  our  ancient 
Kings,  who  began  to  reign  in  871,  had  much  fighting 
with  the  Danes.  The  northern  part  of  England  was 
conquered  by  them,  and  Danish  Kings  and  Earls 
reigned  at  York.  Presently  they  invaded  Wessex, 
whence  they  were  driven  out  by  Alfred  in  878.  But 
he  found  it  needful  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  Danish 


136  THE  PRANKISH  EMPIRE.  [CHAP 

King  Guthrum,  by  which  Guthrum  was  allowed  to 
hold  all  the  eastern  part  of  England,  on  condition  of 
becoming  King  Alfred's  man  and  also  becoming  a 
Christian.  For  the  Danes  were  still  heathens,  as  the 
English  were  when  they  first  entered  Britain,  and 
they  seem  to  have  taken  special  delight  in  destroying 
the  churches  and  monasteries.  The  Kings  who  came 
after  Alfred,  his  son  Edward  and  his  grandsons 
/Ethelstan  and  Edmund,  had  much  fighting  with  the 
Danes  in  Britain.  But  at  last  they  were  able  to  bring 
all  the  Teutonic  people  in  Britain,  both  English  and 
Danish,  into  one  kingdom  ;  so  they  were  called  Kings 
of  the  English  and  not  merely  Kings  of  the  West-Saxons. 
And  all  the  princes  of  the  Welsh  and  of  the  Scots  also 
became  their  men,  so  that  they  were  Lords  of  all 
Britain.  Sometimes,  as  being  lords  of  the  other  world 
where  the  Roman  Emperors  had  no  power,  they  were 
called  Emperors  of  Britain,  or  in  Greek  Basileus,  in 
imitation  of  the  Emperors  of  the  East.  It  was  King 
Edward  who  first  received  the  homage  of  all  Britain 
in  924.  But  it  was  not  till  a  long  time  after  that  the 
Danes  in  the  North  of  England  were  thoroughly 
subdued.  But  these  settlements  of  the  Danes,  by 
breaking  up  the  other  English  kingdoms  and  by  mak- 
ing Englishmen  everywhere  ready  to  join  against  the 
invaders,  really  did  much  to  help  the  West-Saxon 
Kings  in  winning  the  lordship  of  the  whole  island. 

10.  Foundation  of  the  Duchy  of  Normandy. 
— The  Danes  and  other  Northmen  also  made  many 
invasions  of  Gaul  through  the  whole  latter  half  of  the 
ninth  century.  They  more  than  once  sailed  up  the 
Seine  and  besieged  Paris.  There  was  one  specially 
famous  siege  of  Paris  in  885,  when  Count  Odo  did 
great  things  in  withstanding  the  Northmen,  in  reward 
of  which  he  was  before  long,  as  we  have  seen,  elected 
King.  Soon  after  this  the  Northmen  began  to  rr.jke 
settlements  in  Gaul  as  they  did  in  Britain,  and  one 
of  their  settlements  rose  to  great  importance.  Thia 


VH.]  BEGINNING  OF  NORAfANDY.  ij> 

was  the  settlement  made  at  Rouen  by  a  chief  named 
Rolf,  or  in  Latin  Rollo.  This  was  in  913,  when 
Charles  the  Simple,  who  was  King  of  the  West-Franks 
— he  was  of  the  House  of  the  Karlings  and  reigned  at 
Laon — and  Robert,  Duke  of  the  French,  who  was 
brother  of  King  Odo  and  was  afterwards  King  him- 
self, granted  the  land  at  the  mouth  of  the  Seine  to 
Roif.  For  this  he  became  King  Charles's  man,  and 
he  served  his  lord  much  more  faithfully  than  ever  the 
Dukes  of  the  French  did.  Rolf  was  baptized,  as 
Guthrum  had  been,  and  the  Northmen  who  settled  in 
Gaul  gradually  became  Christians  and  learned  to 
speak  French.  Their  name  was  softened  into  Nor- 
mans, and  their  land  was  called  Normandy,  and  their 
prince  the  Duke  of  the  Normans.  The  Dukes  of  the 
Normans  of  the  House  of  Rolf  became  the  most 
powerful  princes  in  Northern  Gaul,  and  we  shall 
presently  hear  of  them  in  England. 

ii.  Summary. — Thus,  in  the  course  of  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries  the  great  Prankish  Empire  broke 
in  pieces  ;  the  Kingdom  of  France  arose  in  Gaul ;  the 
Kingdom  of  England  grew  up  in  Britain ;  the  Danes 
and  Northmen  settled  both  in  Britain  and  in  Gaul,  and 
their  settlement  in  Gaul  grew  into  the  Duchy  of  Nor- 
mandy. During  this  time  the  Romance  languages  had 
hardly  begun  to  be  written,  but  men  were  finding  out 
that  they  were  distinct  languages  from  Latin.  Books 
on  the  Continent  were  still  wholly  written  in  Latin. 
Thus  Eginhard,  the  Secretary  of  Charles  the  Great, 
wrote  the  Life  of  his  master,  and  there  were  other 
good  writers  of  history  in  all  the  Prankish  kingdoms. 
But  the  English  Chronicle  began  to  be  put  together 
in  England  in  these  times,  so  that  we  have,  what 
no  other  people  in  Western  Christendom  has,  our 
ancestral  history  written  in  our  own  tongue  from  th* 
beginning. 


138  THE  SAXON  EMPERORS.  [CHxr 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   SAXON   EMPERORS. 

The  King  iom  of  Germany ;  dealings  with  the  Magvars  and 
Slaves  (\)—the  Saxon  Kings ;  -victories  of  Henry  the 
Fowler  and  Otto  the  Great  over  the  Magyars  (2) — 
Otto  the  great  crowned  Emperor ;  relations  between 
the  Empire  and  the  German  Kingdom  (2,  3) — the  later 
Saxon  Emperors  (3) — disputes  between  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Churches  (4) — the  Macedonian  Emperors  in 
the  East ;  their  victories  over  the  Saracens  (4) — Slavonic 
settlements  in  the  Eastern  Empire  ;  wars  with  the 
Russians  and  Bulgarians  (5) — greatness  of  England 
under  Edgar  (6) — Danish  invasions  of  England;  reign 
of  Cunt  in  Englana  (6) — greatness  of  the  Scandinavian 
nations ;  great  dominion  of  Cnut  j  effects  of  the  Scan- 
dinavian settlements  in  Gaul  ami  Russia  (6,  7) — con- 
version of  the  Scandinavians  and  Russians  to  Chris- 
tianity (7) — Summary  (8). 

i.  The  German  Kingdom. — The  division  of  887 
separated  for  ever  the  Kingdoms  of  the  East  and  West 
Franks,  those  which  answer  to  Germany  and  France. 
But  the  Kingdoms  of  Italy  and  Buigundy  were,  after 
a  while,  once  more  united  with  Germany.  But  this 
was  not  just  yet.  The  Kings  of  the  East-Franks,  the 
Eastern  Kings  as  they  were  called,  were  the  head 
Kings,  but  as  yet  they  only  held  their  own  land,  the 
Teutonic  Kingdom  or  Germany.  They  had  much  ado 
to  defend  themselves  against  the  inroads  of  the  Danes, 
to  defend  and  extend  their  border  against  the  Slave? 
to  the  north-east,  and  to  drive  back  some  new  and 
fearful  enemies  who  had  begun  to  show  themselves  to 
the  south-east.  These  were  the  Magyars  or  Hun- 
garians, of  whom  we  have  already  spoken,  who  were 
pressing  into  Central  Europe,  and  who,  wherever  they 
came,  did  as  much  mischief  by  land  as  the  Northmen 


trill.]  THE  GERMAN  KINGDOM.  135 

did  by  sea.  They  were  still  heathens,  but  in  the  end, 
before  the  tenth  century  was  out,  they  became  Chris- 
tians, and  settled  down  into  a  regular  and  powerful 
Christian  kingdom.  They  have  held  their  place 
among  the  kingdoms  of  Europe  ever  since,  and  their 
land  is  still  called  the  Kingdom  of  Hungary.  But, 
before  the  Hungarians  had  thus  settled  down  among 
Christian  nations,  the  German  Kings  had  to  fight 
many  battles  against  them  to  keep  them  out  of  their 
own  dominions.  As  a  safeguard  against  the  Hun- 
garian invasions  they  founded  a  Mark  or  border-state 
under  a  chief  called  a  Markgraf  or  Marquess ;  this 
was  called  the  Eastern  Mark,  Ostmark  or  Oesterreich. 
This  grew  into  the  Duchy  of  Austria,  the  Dukes  of 
which  have,  oddly  enough,  for  a  long  time  past  been  also 
Kings  of  Hungary.  To  the  north  of  Hungary  several 
Slavonic  states  grew  up  during  this  time  into  Christian 
dukedoms  and  kingdoms,  especially  those  of  Poland 
and  Bohemia ;  but  the  Wends  on  the  south  of  the 
Baltic  remained  heathens  for  a  long  time,  and  the 
Prussians  to  the  east  of  them  for  a  longer  time  still. 
Thus  the  Kingdom  of  Germany  was  the  central  state  of 
Europe,  and  it  had  to  do  with  all  parts  of  Europe, 
East,  West,  North,  and  South.  And  it  was  soon  to 
rise  to  greater  things  still. 

2.  The  Saxon  Kings. — The  dynasty  which  had 
most  to  do  with  raising  the  German  Kingdom  to 
greatness  was  that  of  the  Saxons,  whose  Duke,  Henry, 
was  elected  King  in  918.  He  did  much  to  make  his 
kingdom  flourishing  and  powerful,  and  he  had  to  wage 
many  wars  against  the  Magyars,  especially  by  the 
foundation  of  towns.  He  was  succeeded  in  936  by 
his  son  Otto,  called  the  Great.  He  finally  defeated 
the  Magyars  in  a  great  battle  in  954.  He  had  also 
much  to  do  with  the  affairs  of  the  Western  Kingdom, 
and  he  often  stepped  in  to  help  the  Karolingian  King 
Lewis,  who  was  his  brother-in  tew,  against  his  enemies 
in  France  and  Normandy.  But  he  is  most  famou? 


«4Q  THE  SAXON  EMPERORS.  [CHAP 

for  again  uniting  the  Roman  Empire  to  the  German 
Kingdom.  Since  Arnulf  no  Emperor  had  been  gene- 
rally acknowledged,  though  some  of  the  Kings  of  Italy 
had  been  crowned  Emperors  at  Rome.  In  truth,  Italy, 
during  the  whole  half  of  the  tenth  century,  was  alto- 
gether  torn  in  pieces  by  the  struggles  of  rival  Kin^a 
and  wicked  Popes.  In  951  Otto  was  invited  into 
Italy,  and  he  made  the  King  Berengar  become  his 
man.  In  962  he  was  again  called  on  by  the  Pope  and 
the  Italians  to  deliver  them  from  Berengar  altogether. 
So  he  entered  Italy  a  second  time,  and  was  crowned 
Emperor  at  Rome,  by  the  Pope  John  the  Twelfth^  one 
of  the  worst  of  all  the  Popes. 

3.  The  Restoration  of  the  Empire. — The 
coronation  of  Otto  the  Great  as  Emperor  put  the 
Western  Empire  on  quite  a  new  footing.  Hitherto  the 
Empire  had  had  no  special  connexion  with  any  one  of 
the  several  kingdoms  which  had  arisen  out  of  the 
break-up  of  the  dominion  of  Charles  the  Great  The 
Imperial  crown  had  been  sometimes  held  by  one  King, 
and  sometimes  by  another,  and  very  often  there  had 
been  no  Emperor  at  all.  But  now  Germany  had, 
under  the  Saxon  Kings,  become  so  much  the  greatest 
of  all  the  Frankish  kingdoms  that  it  was  able  to  join 
the  Empire  to  itself.  The  change  was  in  truth  a 
restoration  of  the  Empire  in  a  more  regular  shape 
after  a  time  of  confusion.  From  this  time  the  Empire 
was  always  held  by  a  German  king.  As  long  as  the 
Empire  lasted,  the  rule  was  that  whoever  was  chosen 
King  in  Germany  had  a  right  to  be  crowned  King  oj 
Italy  'at  Milan,  and  to  be  crowned  Emperor  at  Rome. 
There  was  not  always  an  Emperor,  because  some  of 
the  German  Kings  never  got  to  Rome  to  be  crowned 
Emperors  ;  but  there  always  was  either  an  Emperor 
or  a  King  who  alone  had  the  right  to  be  crowned 
Emperor.  Thus  the  Kingdom  of  Italy  was  again 
united  with  the  Kingdom  of  Germany.  But  both 
Burgundy  and  Karolingia  or  the  Western  Kingdom 


viii.]    RESTORA  TION  OF  WESTERN  EMPIRE.     141 

still  remained  cut  off  from  the  Empire,  Burgundy  fol 
a  while  and  Karolingia  for  ever.  Still  the  Emperors 
kept  a  good  deal  of  influence  in  Burgundy,  and  in  the 
Western  Kingdom  too  as  long  as  any  of  the  Karlings 
reigned  at  Laon.  But  when  the  Kingdom  of  Franct 
was  finally  established,  when  the  long  line  of  Kings  of 
the  French  of  the  blood  of  Hugh  Capet  began  to  reign 
at  Paris,  France  left  off  having  anything  to  do  with  the 
Empire  at  all  Otto  the  Great  died  in  972,  and  after 
him  reigned  his  son  Otto  the  Second  till  983.  He  had 
wars  with  the  Danes,  whose  King  Harold,  called 
.Blaatandor  Bluetooth,  he  forced  to  become  a  Christian, 
and  also  with  the  Eastern  Emperors  in  Southern  Italy. 
Then  came  Otto  the  Third  from  983  to  1002.  He  was 
called  the  Wonder  of  tlie  World.  His  great  wish  was 
to  make  Rome  again  the  head  of  the  world  and  to 
reign  there  again,  like  one  of  the  old  Emperors.  But 
he  died  young,  and  his  plans  were  all  cut  short.  Then 
came  Henry  the  Second,  a  descendant  of  Henry  the 
First,  but  not  of  Otto  the  Great,  who  was  the  last 
Saxon  Emperor.  He  died  in  1024. 

4.  The  Eastern  Empire. — It  is  now  time  to 
say  something  of  what  had  happened  in  the  East 
since  the  election  of  Charles  the  Great  in  the  West. 
The  Eastern  Empire,  as  I  before  said,  was  now  chiefly 
confined  to  the  Greek-speaking  parts  of  Europe  and 
Asia.  And,  after  the  Eastern  and  Western  Empires 
were  separated,  disputes  gradually  arose  between  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Churches.  They  differed  on 
some  points  both  of  doctrine  and  ceremony,  but  the 
real  ground  of  quarrel  was  chiefly  because  the  Eastern 
Church  would  never  admit  the  claims  of  the  Bishops 
of  Rome.  The  Iconoclast  controversy  went  on  during 
a  great  part  of  the  ninth  century,  but  in  the  end  the 
worshippers  of  images  gained  the  day.  After  Eirene 
there  were  several  Emperors  of  different  families,  some 
of  whom  were  weak  men,  while  others  ruled  well  and 
fought  manfully  against  the  Saracens,  At  last,  in  thf 


f4*  THE  SAXON  EMPERORS.  [CHAf 

latter  pait  of  the  ninth  century,  a  dynasty  arose  undef 
which  the  Eastern  Empire  won  back  a  great  deal  of 
its  former  power.  This  was  the  Basiiian  or  Macedonian 
dynasty,  the  first  Emperor  of  which,  Basil  the  First  or 
the  Macedonian,  began  to  reign  in  867.  He  was  a 
law-giver,  and  under  him  the  Byzantine  dominions  in 
Italy  were  greatly  increased.  But  the  time  when  the 
Eastern  Empire  reached  its  greatest  amount  of  power 
after  the  final  division  was  from  963  to  1025.  Three 
Emperors,  one  after  the  other,  Nikephoros  Phokas, 
John  Tzimiskes,  and  Basil  the  Second,  won  back  many 
of  the  provinces  which  had  been  lost  The  Saracens, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  were  now  cut  up  into  many 
small  states,  and,  though  the  Caliphs  went  on,  they 
could  no  longer  meet  the  Emperors  on  equal  terms. 
Nikephoros  won  back  Crete,  and  both  he  and  John 
Tzimiskes,  who  murdered  him  and  reigned  in  his  stead, 
waged  wars  in  the  East,  won  back  Antioch  and  other 
cities  which  had  been  taken  by  the  Saracens  in  their 
first  conquests,  and  again  carried  the  Roman  frontier 
to  the  Euphrates. 

5.  The  Slavonic  Invasions.— We  said  at  the 
beginning  that  the  Slavonic  nations  were  the  last  of 
the  great  Aryan  swarms  which  had  pressed  into 
Europe,  and  that  which  had  played  the  least  part  in 
the  general  affairs  of  the  world.  As  yet  we  have  not 
heard  much  of  them,  except  so  far  as  the  German 
Kings  had  greatly  extended  their  dominion  to  the  West 
at  their  expense.  But  we  have  now  reached  a  very 
important  period  in  their  history,  chiefly  with  regard 
to  their  dealings  with  the  Eastern  Empire.  For  a 
long  time  past  various  nations  had  been  pressing  into 
the  northern  parts  of  the  Byzantine  dominions,  and 
the  Emperors  had  constant  wars  to  wage  against 
enemies  on  their  northern  as  well  as  on  their  eastern 
frontier.  Some  of  them  settled  within  the  Empire, 
while  others  simply  invaded  and  ravaged  its  provinces. 
Some  of  these  invaders  and  settlers  were  Turanians 


mi.]  THE  MACEDONIAN  EMPERORS.  143 

out  many  of  them  belonged  to  the  race  of  the  Slaves, 
who  play  a  part  in  the  history  of  the  Eastern  Empire 
something  like  that  which  the  Teutonic  people  played 
in  the  West.  That  is  to  say,  they  were  half  conquerors, 
half  disciples.  Many  of  the  north-western  provinces 
of  the  Empire  were  settled  by  Slavonic  tribes,  who 
have  grown  into  the  people  of  Servia,  Dalmatia,  and 
the  other  lands  now  bordering  on  Hungary,  Austria, 
and  Turkey.  They  also  made  large  settlements  in 
Macedonia  and  Greece,  but  from  some  of  these  they 
were  afterwards  driven  out.  It  is  even  said  that  the 
Macedonian  Emperors  themselves  were  really  of  Sla- 
vonic descent.  The  Russians,  also  a  Slavonic  people, 
though  their  princes  were  of  Scandinavian  descent, 
made  several  inroads  into  the  Eastern  Empire  in  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  and  even  attacked  Con- 
stantinople by  sea.  But  they  were  finally  defeated  by 
the  Emperor  John  Tzimiskes  in  973.  Another  great 
enemy  was  the  Bulgarians,  a  people  originally  Tura- 
nian, but  who  learnt  to  speak  a  Slavonic  language, 
and  who  were  so  mixed  up  with  their  Slavonic  neigh- 
bours and  subjects,  that  they  may  pass  as  one  of  the 
Slavonic  nations.  They  founded  a  kingdom  in  the 
north-western  part  of  the  Empire,  and  they  were  for 
a  long  time  a  great  thorn  in  the  sides  of  the  Emperors. 
With  these  Bulgarians  the  Emperors  had  many  wars, 
till  in  the  end  their  kingdom  was  altogether  destroyed 
by  Basil  the  Second,  who  was  called  the  flayer  of  the 
Bulgarians,  when  the  Roman  frontier  was  again  car- 
ried to  the  Danube.  All  these  invaders  and  settlers 
gradually  became  Christians,  getting  their  Christianity 
from  the  Eastern  Church,  as  the  Teutons  and  Western 
Slaves  got  theirs  from  the  Western  Church.  But  the 
Popes  and  the  Patriarchs  of  Constantinople  had  long 
disputes  about  the  obedience  of  the  Bulgarians.  It 
was  under  Basil  the  Second,  whose  sister  Theophant 
married  the  Western  Emperor  Otto  the  Second,  that 
the  separate  Eastern  Empire  was  at  the  greatest  height 


144  THE  SAXON  EMPERORS.  [CHAC 

of  its  p>wer,  but  after  his  death  it  greatly  fell  back 
again. 

6.  England  and  the  Danes. — England  had  a 
good  deal  to  do  with  the  Western  Empire  during  the 
time  of  the  Saxon  Emperors.  The  daughters  of 
Edward  the  Elder  were  married  to  the  chief  princes 
of  Europe,  and  one  of  them  named  Eadgyth  or  Edith 
was  the  first  wife  of  Otto  the  Great.  It  marks  the 
central  position  of  the  German  Kingdom  that  its 
kings  made  marriages  with  England  at  one  end  and 
with  Constantinople  at  the  other.  Under  Edgar,  who 
reigned  from  959  to  975,  England  was  at  the  height 
of  its  power,  but  in  the  reign  of  his  son  sEthelrcd  the 
inroads  of  the  Danes  and  Northmen  began  again.  At 
one  time,  in  994,  England  was  attacked  at  once  by 
Olaf  King  of  the  Northmen  and  by  Sweden  or  Sweyn 
King  of  the  Danes.  Olaf  was  persuaded  to  become 
a  Christian  and  to  make  peace  with  England ;  so  he 
went  home  to  Norway  and  began  to  bring  in  Chris- 
tianity there.  Swegen  was  the  son  of  that  King 
Harold  who  had  been  overcome  by  Otto  the  Second ; 
he  had  been  baptized  in  his  childhood,  but  had  fallen 
back  into  heathenism.  The  war  with  Swegen  went 
on  till  at  last,  in  1013,  ^Ethelred  was  driven  out  and 
Swegen  was  acknowledged  King  all  over  England. 
This  was  quite  another  kind  of  conquest  from  mere 
plundering  inroads,  and  even  from  settlements  in 
parts  of  the  country,  like  that  of  Guthrum  or  that  of 
Rolf  in  Gaul.  A  King  of  all  Denmark  came  against 
England  to  make  himself  King  over  all  England  also. 
Swegen  died  very  soon  and  ^Ethelred  did  not  live 
long  after  The  war  then  went  on  between  Cnut  or 
Canute  the  son  of  Swegen  and  Edmund  the  son  of 
^Ethelred.  At  last,  in  1017,  Cnut  became  King  over 
all  England  ;  he  inherited  the  crown  of  his  native 
country  Denmark,  and  he  also  won  Norway  and  part 
of  Sweden.  He  was  thus  lord  of  all  Northern  Europe, 
and  was  by  far  the  most  powerful  prince  of  his  time 


vin.]  DOMINION  OF  CNUT.  145 

Though  he  came  into  England  by  force,  he  ruled  well 
and  won  the  love  of  the  people  j  but  after  his  death 
in  1035  the  bad  government  of  his  sons  disgusted  th« 
English  with  the  Danish  rule,  and  in  1042  they  again 
chose  a  native  King  in  the  person  of  Edward  the  SOB 
of  ^thelred. 

7.  Greatness  of  the  Scandinavians. — The 
time  when  Cnut  reigned  in  England  was  the  time 
when  the  Danes  and  the  Northmen  were  at  the  height 
of  their  power.  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden  were 
all  powerful  kingdoms  ;  England  was  under  a  Danish 
King,  and  princes  of  Scandinavian  descent  ruled  both 
in  Normandy  and  in  Russia.  But  wherever  the  North- 
men settled,  though  they  always  put  a  new  life  into  the 
lands  which  they  made  their  own,  they  showed  a 
wonderful  power  of  adapting  themselves  to  the  people 
among  whom  they  settled,  and  of  taking  to  their 
manners  and  language.  Thus  Cnut,  when  he  reigned 
in  England,  became  quite  an  Englishman,  and  the 
Northmen  who  settled  in  Gaul  became  quite  French, 
and  those  who  settled  in  Russia  became  quite  Slavonic. 
In  this  way  the  original  lands  of  the  Northmen  really 
lost  in  strength  and  importance,  and  became  of  less 
account  in  Europe  than  they  otherwise  might  have 
been.  For  the  best  life  of  Scandinavia  went  away 
into  other  lands  to  give  a  new  life  to  them.  About 
the  end  of  the  tenth  and  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
centuries,  all  the  Northern  nations,  except  the  Prus- 
sians and  Lithuanians,  gradually  became  Christians. 
The  Scandinavians,  like  the  other  Teutonic  nations, 
got  their  Christianity  from  the  West ;  but  the  Russians, 
like  the  Bulgarians  and  the  other  nations  who  had  to 
do  with  the  Eastern  Empire,  got  their  Christianity  from 
Constantinople  and  became  part  of  the  Eastern 
Church.  To  this  day  they  are  the  only  one  among 
the  great  nations  of  Europe  which  remains  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  East,  having  nothing  to  do  either  with  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  or  with  the  Reformed  Churches. 


146  THE  FRANCON1AN  EMPERORS.         [CHAP 

8.  Summary. —  Thus,  in  the  ninth  century  and 
the  beginning  of  the  tenth,  the  German  kingdom  ad 
vanced,  and  was  again  united  with  the  Roman  Empire, 
The  Eastern  Empire  won  back  much  of  its  power, 
and  drove  back  its  Slavonic  invaders.  The  Danet 
conquered  England,  and  trie  Scandinavian  people 
generally  were  at  the  height  of  their  power.  The 
chief  historians  of  this  period  were  the  German 
writers  who  recorded  the  deeds  of  the  Ottos.  In 
England  learning  had  got  back  from  what  it  was  at 
an  earlier  time.  In  Gaul  men  had  already  found  out 
that  the  Roman,  or  the  spoken  tongue  of  the  people, 
had  grown  into  a  different  language  from  the  written 
Latin.  But  we  have  no  French  writings  as  yet 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  FRANCONIAN  EMPERORS. 

Succession  of  Kings,  Conrad,  Henry  the  Third,  Henry  the 
Fourth,  Henry  the  Fifth  (i) — dealings  of  henry  the 
Third  with  the  Popes  (^—disputes  between  Henry  the 
Fourth  and  Gregory  the  Seventh  (i) — continued  dis- 
putes between  the  Popes  and  Henry  the  Fifth  (i) — 
causes  of  the  growth  of  Papal  power  (2) — designs  of 
Gregory  t]ie  Seventh;  disputes  about  invest ures  and 
the  marriage  of  the  clergy  (2) — growth  of  the  Duchy 
of  Normandy  (3) — reign  of  William  the  Conqueror ; 
his  claims  on  the  crown  of  England  favoured  by  the 
Pope  (3) — election  of  Harold  of  England:  'invasion  nf 
Harold  of  Norway ;  Norman  invasion  and  conquc\t 
of  England  (3) — effects  of  the  Norman  Conquest  of 
England;  use  of  the  French  language;  closer  connex- 
ion of  England  with  other  lands  (4) — relations  between 
France  and  Normandy  (5) — effects  of  the  Norman 
Conquest  on  France ;  greatness  of  Henry  the  Second 
in  England  (5) — advance  of  the  Christians  in  Spain; 
growth  of  the  kingdom  of  Arragon  (6) — Norman 
Conquest  of  Sicily  ;  fouiulation  and  growth  of  the  king- 


IX.  J  HENRY  TtlE  THIRD.  14? 

dom  (7) — decline  of  the  Eastern  Empire  (8) — growth 
of  the  Turks ;  their  dealings  with  the  Caliphs  (8) — 
divisions  of  the  Caliphate  (8) — wars  between  the  Turki 
and  the  Eastern  Empire;  conquests  of  the  Turks  in 
Asia  Minor  (8) — revival  of  the  Empire  under  the. 
Komn£idan  Emperors  *  decay  of  the  Turkish  power  (8) 
-  causes  of  the  Cnusades  (8,  9) — the  Crusade  preached 
by  Peter  the  Hermit  and  Urban  the  Second  (9) — 
First  Crusade  ;  taking  of  Jerusalem  (9) — effects  of  tht 
Crusades  (9) — Summary  (ro). 

i.  Succession  of  Kings. — On  the  death  of 
Henry  the  Second,  Conrad,  a  descendant  of  a  daugh- 
ter of  Otto  the  Great,  was  chosen  King.  He  was  the 
first  of  the  Franconian  Empercrs.  They  are  so  called 
as  coming  from  the  Eastern  or  Teutonic  Francia, 
which,  to  distinguish  it  from  Latin  Francia  or  France, 
is  commonly  called  Franconia.  He  was  crowned 
Emperor  in  1027  and  reigned  till  1039.  The  chief 
event  of  his  reign  was  that  in  1032  the  Kingdom  of 
Burgundy  was  united  to  the  Empire  on  the  death  of 
its  last  King  Rtidolf.  Thus  three  out  of  the  four 
Prankish  Kingdoms  were  again  joined  together,  France 
alone,  as  we  must  now  call  it,  standing  aloof.  Conrad's 
son  Henry  the  Third  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  the 
Emperors.  He  was  crowned  King  both  of  Germany 
and  of  Burgundy  in  his  father's  lifetime.  This  was 
often  done  in  those  days,  in  order  to  make  the  succes- 
sion certain,  and  to  avoid  the  dangers  of  an  interregnum 
or  time  when  there  is  no  King.  Henry  was  called 
into  Italy  in  much  the  same  way  as  Otto  the  Great 
had  been  ;  for  there  were  great  disputes  at  Rome,  where 
three  candidates  at  once  all  claimed  the  Popedom. 
King  Henry  came  into  Italy  in  1046  and  deposed 
them  all.  He  then  gave  the  Popedom  to  several 
German  Bishops  one  after  the  other,  and  they  ruled 
the  Church  far  better  than  the  Romans  had  done. 
He  was  himself  crowned  Emperor  in  the  same  year 
He  did  much  to  restore  order  and  religion  both  in 


I48  THE  FRANCONIAN  EMPERORS.        [CHAF 

Germany  and  in  Italy,  and  he  maintained  the  authority 
of  the  Empire  better  than  had  been  done  for  a  long  time. 
He  was  a  close  ally  of  the  English  King  Edward, 
whose  half-sister  Gunhild,  the  daughter  of  Cnut,  was 
his  first  wife.  On  his  death  in  1056  he  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Henry  the  Fourth,  who  was  only  six  years 
old  when  his  father  died,  but  who  had  been  already 
crowned  King.  His  childhood  and  youth  was  a  time 
of  great  confusion,  and,  as  he  grew  up,  he  ruled  at  first 
very  ill,  and  his  oppression  drove  the  Saxons  to  revolt 
in  1073.  About  the  same  time  there  arose  long  dis- 
putes between  the  Emperors  and  the  Popes,  which  tore 
Germany  and  Italy  in  pieces.  At  one  time  Pope  Greg' 
ory  the  Seventh,  the  famous  Hildebrand,  professed  to 
depose  the  King,  and  in  the  beginning  of  1077  Henry 
had  to  come  and  crave  pardon  of  Gregory.  In  the 
same  year  the  Saxons,  and  others  in  Germany  who 
were  discontented,  chose  Rudolf  Duke  of  Swabia 
King  instead  of  Henry.  Rudolf  was  killed  in  1080, 
but,  during  nearly  all  the  rest  of  his  reign,  Henry  had 
to  struggle  with  one  enemy  after  another,  among  them 
his  own  son  Conrad,  and  afterwards  his  other  son 
Henry,  whom  he  had  crowned  King  in  1099.  Henry 
himself  had  driven  Gregory  out  of  Rome  in  1085, 
and  he  had  been  crowned  Emperor  by  Clement  the 
Third,  whom  he  had  himself  appointed  Pope.  At 
last  he  died  in  n  06,  while  still  at  war  with  his  son 
King  Henry,  who  now  reigned  alone.  Henry  the  Fifth 
had  nearly  the  same  disputes  with  the  Popes  which 
his  father  had  had,  but  he  was  regularly  crowned 
Emperor  at  Rome  in  1 1 1 1.  He  married  Matilda,  the 
daughter  of  our  King  Henry  the  First,  but  he  had  no 
son,  and  the  Franconian  dynasty  came  to  an  end  at 
his  death  in  1125. 

2.  Growth  of  the  Papal  Power. — The  power 
of  the  Popes,  which  has  just  been  mentioned,  and  their 
disputes  with  the  Emperors,  must  be  spoken  of  a  little 
more  fully.  From  the  time  of  Constantine  onwards 


IX]          Ti'fE  POPES  AND  THE  EMPERORS,          149 

the  divisions  of  the  Empire  and  the  constant  absence 
of  the  Emperors  from  Rome  had  greatly  increased  the 
power  of  the  Popes.  They  had  not,  like  the  Patriarchs 
of  Constantinople,  a  superior  always  at  hand.  Charles 
the  Great  had  fully  asserted  the  Imperial  power  over 
the  Church,  but,  after  his  Empire  broke  up,  the  power 
of  the  Popes  grew  again.  It  was  checked  only  by 
their  own  wickedness  and  their  divisions  among  them- 
selves, which  Kings  like  Otto  the  Great  and  Henry 
the  Third  had  to  step  in  and  put  an  end  to.  Things 
were  very  different  now  from  what  they  had  been  in 
the  old  times,  when  the  whole  or  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  Church  was  contained  within  the  bounds  of  the 
Empire.  First  of  all,  there  were  now  two  rival  Empe- 
rors and  two  rival  Churches,  and  the  Empire  and  the 
Church  of  the  East  in  no  way  acknowledged  either  the 
Emperor  or  the  Bishop  of  the  Old  Rome.  And  even 
in  the  West,  part  of  the  Empire,  namely  the  Kingdom 
of  France,  had  cut  itself  off  from  the  main  body,  while 
new  Christian  kingdoms  like  England,  Hungary,  and 
Denmark  had  risen  up  beyond  the  Empire.  In  this 
state  of  things  the  Bishops  of  Rome,  who  were  looked 
up  to  by  so  many  kingdoms  as  the  chief  Bishops  of 
the  West,  could  hardly  remain  so  submissive  to  the 
Emperors  as  they  had  been  when  the  Emperors  were 
the  only  Christian  princes.  The  Popes  had  not  as  yet 
any  distinct  temporal  dominion,  such  as  they  had  in 
after  times  ;  still  they  were  no  longer  mere  subjects  of 
the  Emperor,  as  they  had  been  under  Constantine  and 
Justinian  and  Charles  the  Great.  In  truth,  it  was  to 
this  undefined  position  that  the  Popes  owed  much  ol 
their  power.  And  now  Gregory  the  Seventh,  the  great- 
est of  all  the  Popes,  set  himself  to  work  to  set  up  the 
ecclesiastical  power  as  superior  to  the  temporal.  To 
this  end  he  laid  down  two  main  rules,  one  that  the 
clergy  might  not  marry,  the  other  that  no  temporal 
prince  should  bestow  any  ecclesiastical  benefice,  as 
was  then  commonly  done  in  Germany,  England,  and 


ISO  THE  FRANCOMAN  EMPERORS,         [CHAP, 

most  parts  of  Europe.  Hence  began  the  long  quarrel 
between  Gregory  and  Henry  the  Fourth,  and  between 
many  Popes  and  Emperors  after  them.  And  we  may 
mark  that  the  quarrel  between  the  Popes  and  the 
Emperors  was  one  in  which  good  men  might  and  did 
take  either  side.  A  good  Emperor  like  Henry  the 
Third  did  much  good  by  clearing  away  unworthy  dis- 
putants, and  giving  to  the  Church  a  succession  ol 
worthy  rulers.  But  the  same  power  in  the  hands  of  a 
bad  prince  led  to  the  sale  of  bishopricks  for  money 
and  to  many  other  abuses.  The  great  evil  was  that 
Popes  like  Gregory  the  Seventh,  who  were  really 
anxious  for  the  purity  of  the  Church,  acted  too  much 
as  if  the  Church  were  made  up  only  of  the  clergy,  and 
strove  to  make  the  clergy,  with  themselves  at  their 
head,  into  quite  a  separate  body  from  other  men.  It 
is  hard  to  say  which  party  won  in  the  end.  We  may 
perhaps  say  that  the  Popes  succeeded  in  overthrowing 
the  power  of  the  Emperors,  but  that  they  had  them- 
selves to  yield  in  the  end  to  the  power  of  other 
temporal  princes. 

3.  The  Norman  Conquest  of  England. — We 
have  already  seen  how  in  987  the  dynasty  of  the 
Karlings  in  the  West  came  to  an  end,  and  how  Hugh, 
the  Duke  of  the  French,  became  King  of  the  French. 
Meanwhile  the  duchy  which  had  been  founded  by 
Rolf  had  grown  up  into  great  power  and  prosperity, 
and  Normandy  reckoned  among  the  chief  states  of 
Western  Euorpe.  And  Normandy  became  greater  still 
under  its  famous  Duke  William,  who  subdued  England, 
and  who  is  therefore  known  as  William  the  Conqueror. 
It  was  now  that  Britain,  which  had  hitherto  been 
looked  on  as  another  world,  began  to  have  much  more 
to  do  with  the  general  affairs  of  Europe.  King  Ed- 
ward, the  last  King  of  the  English  of  the  old  West- 
Saxon  dynasty,  was,  through  his  mother,  a  kinsman 
of  Duke  William,  and  it  would  seem  that  at  one 
time  of  his  life  he  made  Duke  William  some  kind  oi 


tX.J  THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST.  151 

promise  that,  as  he  had  no  children;he  should  succeed 
him  on  the  throne  of  England.  But,  however  this  may 
be,  when  King  Edward  died  in  1066,  the  English 
people,  as  there  was  no  one  in  the  royal  family  fit  to 
reign,  gave  the  Crown  to  Earl  Harold,  who  was  then 
the  greatest  man  in  the  land.  Duke  William  however 
put  forth  his  claim,  and,  though  he  found  no  one  to 
help  him  in  England,  he  made  most  people  in  other 
lands  believe  that  he  had  the  right  on  his  side.  Espe- 
cially he  persuaded  Hildebrand,  who  was  not  yet  Pope, 
but  who  already  had  great  influence  at  Rome,  to  take 
his  part.  So  Pope  Alexander  the  Second  declared  in 
his  favour,  and  blessed  his  undertaking.  This  was  the 
way  in  which  the  Popes  seized  every  opportunity  to 
extend  their  power  both  within  the  Empire  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  world.  William  was  thus  able  to 
invade  England,  at  the  head  not  only  of  his  own  Nor- 
mans, but  of  men  from  all  parts,  who  were  taught  to 
look  on  the  enterprise  as  a  holy  war.  England  was 
just  at  this  time  attacked  by  Harold  ffardrada,  King 
of  the  Northmen,  so  that  her  King  Harold  had  to  fight 
against  two  foes  at  once.  He  defeated  Harold  of 
Norway,  but  was  himself  defeated  and  slain  by  Duke 
vVilliam  in  the  famous  battle  of  Senlac  or  Hastings. 
Duke  William  was  crowned  King  at  Christmas  1066, 
but  the  English  still  withstood  him  in  many  places, 
and  it  took  him  about  four  years  to  get  full  possession 
of  the  whole  kingdom.  He  gradually  found  means  to 
give  all  the  greatest  estates  and  highest  offices  in  Eng- 
land to  Normans  and  other  strangers,  and  he  handed 
on  the  English  Crown  to  his  descendants,  by  whom  it 
has  been  held  ever  since. 

4.  Effects  of  the  Norman  Conquest  of 
England. — The  establishment  of  Duke  William  and 
his  followers  in  Normandy  brought  about  some  very 
great  changes  both  in  England  and  in  the  rest  of 
Europe.  The  English  were  not  killed  or  turned  out 
as  they  hatx  themselves  done  by  the  Welsh,  and  the) 


'52  THE  FRANCON1AN  EMPERORS,         [CHAP. 

kept  their  own  laws  and  language ;  yet  for  a  long  time 
all  the  chief  men  in  the  land  were  of  Norman  or  othef 
foreign  descent.  But  it  is  wonderful  in  how  short  a 
time  the  Normans  in  England  became  good  English- 
men. This  was  partly  perhaps  because  Normans 
and  English  were,  after  all,  near  kinsfolk,  only  the 
English  had  kept  their  own  tongue,  while  the  Normans 
had  learned  to  speak  French.  French  remained  for  a 
long  time  the  fashionable  language  in  England,  and 
though,  in  the  end,  English  became  once  more  the 
speech  of  all  men  in  the  land,  yet  in  the  meanwhile  it 
became  greatly  changed,  and  a  great  many  French 
words  crept  in.  Many  new  ideas  came  in  with  the  Nor- 
mans,  which  gradually  made  great  changes  in  English 
laws  and  manners.  The  power  of  the  Kings  became 
much  greater  than  it  had  been  before,  and  William 
made  the  whole  kingdom  far  more  truly  one  than  it 
had  been  up  to  his  time.  Since  his  days  no  one  has 
ever  thought  of  dividing  it.  The  Norman  Conquest 
also  caused  far  more  intercourse  than  there  had  been 
before  between  England  and  other  nations.  Learning 
flourished  more,  the  art  of  building  greatly  advanced, 
and  many  reforms  were  made  in  the  Church  ;  but  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  England  from  this  time  was 
brought  much  more  under  the  power  of  the  Popes. 

5.  Relations  between  England  and  France- 
— Before  the  Norman  Conquest,  England  and  France^ 
meaning  thereby  the  new  Kingdom  of  Paris,  had 
hardly  anything  to  do  with  one  another.  J!ut  France 
and  Normandy  often  were  enemies.  Ever  since  Paris 
became  the  capital,  the  Kings  of  the  French  had  felt 
themselves  hemmed  in  by  the  Dukes  at  Rouen.  And 
now  that  the  same  man  was  Duke  of  the  Normans 
and  King  of  the  English,  the  Norman  Dukes  became 
still  more  powerful  in  Gaul,  and  were  still  more  dan- 
gerous neighbours  to  their  lords  the  Kings  of  the 
French.  The  King  at  Paris  was  in  truth  shut  in  on 
every  side  by  his  own  vassals,  the  great  Dukes  and 


IX.]  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE,  153 

Counts,  over  whom  he  had  no  real  authority.  Just  at 
the  time  when  the  Empire  was  strongest  undei  Henry 
the  Third,  the  Kingdom  of  France  was  weakest  under 
Henry  the  First,  the  third  of  the  Parisian  Kings. 
From  this  time  there  was  a  distinct  rivalry,  which  we 
shall  constantly  come  across,  between  the  Kings  of  the 
French  and  the  Kings  of  the  English,  who  were  also 
Dukes  of  the  Normans.  This  rivalry  has  gone  on 
almost  ever  since,  and  we  shall  constantly  meet  with  it 
in  one  shape  or  another ;  and  this  rivalry  had  the 
further  effect  of  keeping  up  the  old  connexion  be- 
tween England  and  Germany,  both  of  them  being 
rivals  of  France.  I  have  already  mentioned  that 
Henry  the  First  of  England,  the  son  of  William  and  the 
third  of  the  Norman  Kings,  gave  his  daughter  in  mar- 
riage to  the  Emperor  Henry  the  Fifth.  King  Henry 
of  England,  who  reigned  from  noo  to  1135,  was 
born  in  England,  and  he  married  Edith  or  Matilda, 
the  daughter  of  Malcolm  King  of  Scots.  Her 
mother  Margaret  was  the  granddaughter  of  King 
Edmund  Ironside,  so  that  Henry's  children  had  some 
English  blood  in  them.  In  1154  Henry,  the  son  of 
Henry  the  First's  daughter,  the  Empress  Matilda,  by 
her  second  husband  Geoffrey  Count  of  Anjou,  came  to 
the  Crown  of  England.  The  pedigree  in  this  case 
should  be  carefully  remembered,  because  with  Henry 
the  Second  began  the  Angevin  Kings  of  England,  who 
were  neither  Norman  nor  English,  except  in  the  female 
line.  Henry  presently  married  Eleanor  the  heiress  of 
Aquitaine  ;  he  thus  was  master  of  the  greater  part  of 
Northern  and  Western  Gaul,  holding  of  the  King  of 
the  French  far  greater  possessions  than  the  King  held 
himself.  Here  is  quite  a  new  state  of  things,  in  which 
the  same  man  not  only  held  both  England  and  Nor- 
mandy, but  had  by  far  the  greatest  power  in  all  Gaul. 
We  shall  presently  see  what  came  of  these  changes. 

6.  Wars  with  the  Mahometans  in  Spain.— 
The  time  of  the  Franconian  Emperors  is  also  memor 


•  54  THE  FRANCONIAN  EMPERORS.         [CHAF 

able  as  the  time  when  the  great  struggle  between  the 
Christian  and  Mahometan  nations  began  to  spread 
itself  over  a  much  wider  field.  All  this  while  wars 
had  been  going  on  with  the  Saracens  in  all  those  parts 
of  Europe  and  Western  Asia  where  they  had  settled. 
The  Christians  of  Spain,  as  I  have  already  said,  had 
always  kept  their  independence  in  the  mountainous 
lands  in  the  north,  and  the  conquests  of  Charles  the 
Great  had  been  a  further  check  to  the  advance  of  the 
Saracens.  As  the  Western  Empire  began  to  be  divided, 
the  Western  Caliphate  grew  stronger.  The  time  of 
the  greatest  power  of  the  Mahometans  in  Spain  was  in 
the  reign  of  Abd-al-rahman  the  Third,  from  912  to 
961.  The  Christian  kingdoms  however  still  main- 
tained their  independence,  and  in  1031  the  Western 
Caliphate  came  to  an  end,  and  the  Saracen  dominion 
in  Spain  was  cut  up  into  several  small  states.  The 
Christians  were  now  able  to  advance,  and  in  1084 
Alfonso  the  Sixth,  who  had  united  the  two  kingdoms 
of  Leon  and  Castile,  won  back  the  old  capital  of  Toledo, 
and  was  near  making  himself  master  of  the  whole  of 
Spain.  The  Mahometans  in  Spain  had  now  to  call 
in  their  fellow-believers  in  Africa  to  their  help.  Thus 
arose  the  Moorish  dynasty  of  the  Almoravides  in 
Southern  Spain,  which  put  a  check  for  the  while  to  the 
advance  of  the  Christians.  But  in  1118,  Alfonso  of 
Aragon  recovered  Zaragoza,  that  is  Casar- Augusta, 
the  chief  city  of  Eastern  Spain,  and  from  that  time  the 
kingdom  of  Aragon  also  began  to  grow  in  importance. 
7.  Foundation  of  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily. — 
Meanwhile  the  Christians  were  also  gaining  ground 
on  the  Mahometans  in  the  great  islands  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. I  have  said  how  the  Emperor  Nikephoros 
won  back  Crete  for  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  Sardinia  was  won 
back  by  the  people  of  the  Tuscan  commonwealth  ol 
Pisa.  Soon  afterwards,  Norman  adventurers  began 
to  press  into  the  South,  and  to  make  conquests  at  th« 


IX.]  SPAIN  AND  SICILY.  155 

expense  both  of  the  Saracens  and  of  the  Eastern 
Emperors.  Under  the  famous  Robei-t  Wiscard,  they 
conquered  nearly  all  the  lands  which  the  Eastern 
Emperors  still  kept  in  Italy.  They  then  crossed  into 
Sidfy'm  1062,  and  founded  a  county  which,  in  1130, 
under  its  third  Count  Roger  the  Second,  became  a  king- 
dom. Thus  began  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily,  where  at 
first  French-speaking  Kings  leigned  over  Arabic- 
speaking  Mahometans  and  Greek-speaking  Christians. 
All  three  languages  gradually  died  out,  but  for  a  time 
all  nations  and  religions  flourished  under  the  Norman 
Kings.  King  Roger  afterwards  won  the  Norman 
possessions  in  Italy,  and  the  little  that  was  left  to  the 
Eastern  Emperors.  Thus  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily 
took  in,  not  only  the  island,  but  all  the  southern  part 
of  the  Italian  peninsula. 

8.  The  Eastern  Empire. — We  must  now  look 
to  the  affairs  of  the  Eastern  Empire  in  Asia,  and  the 
more  so  because  its  danger  at  this  time  led  to  the 
most  famous  of  all  the  wars  between  Christians  and 
Mahometans,  namely  to  the  Crusades  or  Holy  Wars. 
These  were  the  wars  which  the  Christians  waged  to 
win  back  the  Holy  Land,  and  especially  the  tomb  oi 
our  Lord  at  Jerusalem,  from  their  Mahometan  posses- 
sors. After  the  death  of  Basil  the  Second,  the  Eastern 
Empire,  which,  under  the  Macedonian  Emperors,  had 
again  become  so  powerful  both  in  Europe  and  Asia, 
began  once  more  to  fall  back.  As  a  new  European 
enemy  had  arisen  against  it  in  the  Normans  of  Sicily, 
so  a  new  and  terrible  enemy  arose  against  it  in  Asia. 
These  were  the  Turks  of  the  house  of  Seljuk.  We 
may  now  look  on  the  chief  dominion  of  Asia  as  being 
finally  handed  over  from  the  Saracens  to  the  Turks. 
1'his  change  of  power  in  Asia  brought  about  two 
memorable  results.  First,  it  was  the  cause  of  the 
heaviest  blow  which  the  Eastern  Empire  had  under- 
gone since  the  time  of  the  first  Caliphs.  Secondly, 
it  was  the  cause  of  the  Crusades  which  were  waged 


*56  THE  FRANCONIAN  EMPERORS.        [CHAP, 

by  men  from  Western  Europe.  In  the  course  of 
the  tenth  century,  the  Eastern  Caliphate  may  be 
looked  on  as  coming  to  an  end  as  a  political  power. 
A  third  Caliphate  arose  in  Egypt,  and  the  Caliphs 
of  Bagdad  gradually  fell  under  the  control  of  their 
own  mercenaries  and  ministers,  much  as  the  Mero- 
wingian  Kings  of  the  Franks  had  fallen  under  the 
control  of  the  Austrasian  Mayors.  Meanwhile 
several  Turkish  dynasties  arose  in  Persia,  and  the 
Mahometan  conquest  of  India  began.  At  last,  in  1055, 
the  Caliph  Al  Kayem  asked  help  of  Togrel  Beg,  the 
chief  of  the  Seljuk  Turks,  much  as  the  Popes  had  in- 
vited Pippin  and  Charles  the  Great  into  Italy.  The 
Caliphs  were  now  left  in  free  possession  of  Bagdad, 
but  a  great  Turkish  power  now  arose,  which  soon  took 
iu  all  Western  Asia.  War  soon  arose  between  this 
new  power  and  the  Eastern  Roman  Empire.  In  1071, 
at  the  battle  of  Manzikert,  the  Turks,  under  their 
Sultan  Alp  Arslan,  gained  a  great  victory  over  the 
Romans,  and  the  Emperor  Romanes  was  taken  pri- 
soner, as  Valerian  had  long  ago  been  by  Sapor.  The 
result  of  this  was  that  the  Eastern  Emperors  lost,  not 
only  all  that  had  been  won  back  under  the  Macedo- 
nian Emperors,  but  nearly  all  their  possessions  in  Asia. 
The  dominions  of  the  Seljuk  Turks  now  reached  to  the 
Hellespont  Palestine  meanwhile  was  conquered  and 
conquered  again  by  the  different  Mahometan  powers, 
and  both  the  Eastern  Christians  and  the  pilgrims  from 
Europe  who  went  to  pray  at  Jerusalem  were  far  worse 
treated  than  they  had  been  in  the  days  of  the  first 
Saracens.  Meanwhile  a  new  dynasty  arose  in  the 
Eastern  Empire  under  Alexios  Komnenos,  a  wise 
prince,  whose  family  kept  the  throne  for  about  a 
hundred  years,  and  produced  some  of  the  best  rulers 
and  bravest  warriors  among  the  Byzantine  Emperors. 
Again,  in  1092,  the  Seljuk  power,  like  other  Eastern 
states,  was  divided.  One  line  of  Sultans  reigned  in 
Asia  Minor,  having  their  capital  at  Nikaia,  and,  as 


ix.  J  THE  CRUSADES.  157 

they  ruled  over  lands  which  had  been  woi.  from  the 
Empire,  they  called  themselves  Sultans  of  Rome. 
Thus  everything  favoured  a  common  enterprise  on 
the  part  of  the  Christians.  The  Mahometans  were 
divided ;  the  Eastern  Empire  was  recovering  itself, 
and  men  in  the  West  were  stirred  up  by  pilgrims  who 
told  of  all  that  the  Christians  suffered  in  the  East 
Thus  the  nations  of  the  West  were  moved  to  a  great 
general  enterprise  to  deliver  their  brethren  and  the 
Holy  Places  from  the  power  of  the  infidels. 

9.  The  Beginning  of  the  Crusades. — The 
duty  of  going  to  deliver  the  Holy  Places  was  first 
preached  by  Peter,  a  hermit  of  Amiens,  though  several 
Popes  and  Emperors,  Gregory  the  Seventh  among 
them,  had  already  dreamed  of  such  an  undertaking. 
The  cause  was  now  zealously  taken  up  by  Pope  Urban 
the  Second,  who  in  1095  held  a  Council  at  Clermont  in 
Auvergne,  at  which  the  Holy  War  was  decreed.  This 
war  was  called  a  Crusade,  because  men  put  a  cross  on 
their  shoulders  to  show  that  they  were  going  to  fight 
in  a  holy  war.  Neither  the  Emperor  Henry  nor  any 
of  the  Kings  of  the  West  took  any  part  in  the  Crusade, 
but  many  of  the  smaller  princes  and  a  vast  number 
of  private  men  set  forth  on  the  pilgrimage.  Most  of 
those  who  went  on  the  First  Crusade  were  French- 
speaking  people,  from  which  it  has  come  that  the 
Eastern  nations  have  ever  since  called  all  the  people 
of  Western  Europe  Franks.  The  Crusaders  passed 
through  Asia  Minor  into  Palestine,  and  at  last,  in  1099, 
they  took  Jerusalem.  They  founded  several  Christian 
principalities  in  Palestine  and  Syria,  of  which  the 
head  was  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  of  which  Godfrey 
of  Boulogne,  Duke  of  Lower  Lotharingia, — that  is  of 
JSrabant  in  the  modern  kingdom  of  Belgium, — was 
the  first  King.  The  Crusaders  kept  Jerusalem  for 
somewhat  less  than  a  hundred  years  ;  and,  though  the 
kingdom  was  constantly  helped  by  new  Crusaders 
from  Europe,  ft  had  much  ado  to  hold  its  ground 


<5S  THE  FRANCONIAN  EMPERORS.        [CHAI 

against  the  various  Mahometan  powers.  Meanwhile, 
as  the  power  of  the  Turks  had  been  so  much  weak 
ened  by  the  coming  of  the  Crusaders,  the  Komneniau 
Emperors  were  able  to  win  back  a  large  part  of  Asia 
Minor,  all  the  Euxine  and  yEgaean  coasts,  and  the 
Sultans  of  Rome  were  driven  back  into  the  inland 
parts,  and  had  their  capital  at  Ikonion,  instead  of  at 
Nikaia.  The  effects  of  the  Crusades  were  very  im- 
portant in  every  way.  Eastern  and  Western  Chris- 
tians were  brought  across  one  another  and  across  the 
Mahometans  ;  and,  though  they  commonly  met  one 
another  as  enemies,  yet  they  came  to  know  one  another 
better,  and  to  learn  of  each  other.  Both  the  Saracens 
and  the  Romans  of  the  East  had  much  to  teach  the 
Western  nations  in  many  branches  of  art  and  learning. 
But  still  more  important  than  this  was  the  general 
stirring  up  of  men's  minds  which  followed  on  such 
great  events.  From  the  time  of  the  Crusades  a  great 
revival  of  thought  and  learning  of  every  kind  began 
throughout  Europe. 

to.  Summary. — The  time  of  the  Franconian  Em- 
perors was  thus  a  time  of  very  important  changes. 
The  great  struggle  between  the  Popes  and  the  Emperors 
began.  The  Turkish  power  began.  The  Crusades 
began.  The  Norman  Conquest  of  England  took  plnre. 
The  Christians  began  to  gain  ground  again  in  Spain. 
It  was  the  time  when  the  chief  states  of  modern 
Europe  began  to  form  themselves,  and  when  the  litera- 
ture of  the  Romance  languages  began.  It  was  also 
a  time  when  we  find  many  good  historical  writers  in 
England,  Germany,  and  Normandy.  And  it  was  a  time 
of  great  splendour  in  building,  especially  in  building 
churches.  But  they  were  still  built  in  the  round-arched 
or  Romanesque  style  ;  the  use  of  \hz  pointed  arch,  and 
what  is  commonly  called  the  Gothic s'y\£,  did  not  com* 
in  till  near  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century. 


Long.  TV. 


Long.  E. 


*  Ulnputed  portion  on  the  French  court  appears  in  light  porpli 


10 


from  Greenwich 


JFisk  *  See,N.T 


sombination  of  red  and  blu«v— the  French  and  English  colors. 


x.]  VIEW  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  159 

CHAPTER  X. 

GENERAL  VIEW   OF  THE   MIDD1 E  AGES. 

t'fo  Middle  Ages ;  unimi  of  Roman  and  Teutonic  tlement* 
(l) — the  Church  and  the  Empire  ;  how  affected  by  thi 
Teutonic  settlements  (2) — ideal  powers  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  Pope ;  the  theory  only  imperfectly  carried  out 
(2) — changes  following  on  the  transfer  of  the  Empire 
to  the  German  Kings  (2) — study  of  the  Roman  Law 
(2) — the  Western  Empire  becomes  German  and  the 
Eastern  Empire  becomes  Greek  (3) — condition  of  tlie 
various  countries  of  Europe;  extension  of  the  German 
Kingdom  to  the  East  (3) — the  old  Teutonic  constitu- 
tion; three  orders  of  men,  nobles,  freemen,  and  slaves 
(4) — mixture  of  Roman  and  Teutonie  ideas  (4) — origin 
of  fief s ;  Roman  grant's  of  land  for  military  service; 
Teutonic  custom  of  companionship  to  a  personal  Lord 
(5) — distinction  of  allodial  and  feudal  tenures  ;  change 
of  allodial  holdings  into  feudal  (5) — effects  of  the  feudal 
tenures;  growth  of  the  class  of  serfs  (6) — introduction 
of  representative  assemblies ;  growth  nf  the  power  of 
the  feudal  princes  (6) — comparison  of  the  political  state 
of  England,  Germany,  and  France  (7) — Kings  com- 
monly chosen  out  of  a  single  family  (S) — origin  of  the 
Electors  of  the  Empire  (8) — the  Crown  of  France  be- 
comes strictly  hereditary  (8) — uncertainty  of  succession 
in  the  Eastern  Empire  (S) — spread  of  Christianity  over 
nearly  all  Europe  (9) — division  between  the  Eastern 
and  the  Western  Chiirches  (9) — growth  of  the  power 
of  the  Popes ;  tendency  of  the  clergy  to  act  as  a  distinct 
class  (9)  —  temporal  powers  of  the  clergy ;  special 
greatness  of  the  German  Prelates  (10) — distinction 
between  regular  and  secular  clergy  ( 1 1 ) — various  orders 
of  monks ;  the  military  orders  (u) — learning  in  (he 
West  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy  j  contrast  in 
the  East  (12) — Greek  becomes  the  language  of  the  East- 
ern Empire ;  continued  use  of  Latin  in  the  West  (12) 
— early  Teutonic  literature  ;  growth  of  the  Romanct 
languages  (12) — revival  of  learning  in  the  twelfth  cen- 


160  VIEW  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       [CHAP. 

tury  (\TL)— position  of  the  towns  in  ancient  Greece  and 
Italy ;  their  decline  under  the  Teutonic  invasions 
(13) — destruction  of  Roman  towns  in  Britain  (13) — 
growth  of  the  towns  in  Germany;  greatness  of  the 
Hanseatic  League  (13) — greatness  of  the  cities  in  Italy 
(13) — Summary  (14). 

1.  General  Survey  of  Europe. — We  have  now 
reached  a  point  at  which  it  will  be  well  to  stop  and 
look   at   the   general   state    of    things    among    the 
European  nations.     All  the  things  which  distinguish 
what  are  called  the  Middle  Ages,  alike   from  what 
we  are  used  to  in  modern  Europe  and  from  the  old 
days  of  heathen  Greece  and  Rome,   have  now  fully 
come   in.     The   settlement  of  the  Teutonic  nations 
within   the   Roman   Empire   had    gradually   brought 
about  a  state  of  things  in  which  we  may  see  both 
Roman  and  Teutonic  elements,  but  in  which  the  two 
had,  as  we  may  say,  so  joined  together  as  to  make  a 
third  thing  different  from  either. 

2.  The  Church  and   the  Empire. — The  two 
great  powers  in  Western  Europe  were  the  Church  and 
the  Empire.     Both  of  them  lived  on  through  the  set- 
tlements of  the  German  nations,  and  both  in  a  manner 
drew  new  powers  from  the  change  of  things.     Men 
believed  more  than  ever  that  Rome  was  the  lawful  and 
natural  centre  of  the  world.     For  it  was  held  that  there 
were  of  divine  right  two  Vicars  of  God  upon  earth, 
the  Roman  Emperor  his  Vicar  in  temporal  things,  and 
the  Roman  Bishop  his  Vicar  in  spiritual  things.    This 
belief  did  not  interfere  with  the  existence  either  of 
separate    commonwealths    and    principalities    or   of 
•national  Churches.     But  it  was  held  that  the  Roman 
Emperor,  who  was  called  Lord  of  the  World,  was  of 
right  the  head  of  all  temporal  states,  and  that  the 
Roman  Bishop,  the  Pope,  was  of  right  the  head  of  all 
Churches.     Now  this  theory  was  never  carried  out,  if 
only  because  so  large  a  part  of  Christendom,  all  the 
Churches  and  nations  of  the  East,  refused  to  acknow 


K.]  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.          161 

ledge  either  the  Emperor  or  the  Bishop  of  the  Old 
Rome.  But  it  was  mnch  more  nearly  carried  out  in 
the  case  of  the  Roman  Bishop  than  it  was  in  the  case 
of  the  Roman  Emperor.  For  the  Popes  did  really 
make  themselves  spiritual  heads  of  the  whole  West, 
while  the  temporal  head  ship  of  the  Emperors  was  never 
acknowledged  by  a  large  part  even  of  the  West. 
But  the  continued  belief  which  men  still  had  in  the 
Roman  Empire  as  a  living  thing  is  not  only  most  re- 
markable in  itself,  but  it  had  a  most  important  effect 
on  the  history  of  the  world.  Still  it  is  plain  that  the 
Roman  Empire  could  not  really  be  the  same  thing  as 
it  had  been  before  the  Teutonic  nations  came  into 
the  Roman  dominions. .  Even  during  the  short  time 
that  the  whole  Empire  of  Charles  the  Great  stayed 
together,  it  made  a  great  difference  that  the  Emperor 
was  a  German  King,  living  for  the  most  part  in  Ger- 
many, and  not  at  Rome  or  anywhere  in  Italy.  And 
afterwards  the  utter  cutting  off  of  France  and  Spain 
from  the  Empire  did  much  to  take  away  from  its 
character  as  a  universal  monarchy,  and  to  make  the 
Emperors  more  like  common  Kings  over  a  particular 
nation.  They  were  still  Kings  of  Italy  and  Burgundy 
as  well  as  of  Germany,  but  most  things  were  now 
tending  to  make  the  Empire  more  and  more  German 
and  less  and  less  Roman.  On  the  other  hand,  as 
this  was  the  time  of  a  great  new  birth  of  learning,  men 
had  begun,  among  other  things,  to  study  the  Civil  Law, 
the  old  law  of  Rome,  as  it  was  put  together  by  the 
Emperor  Justinian.  This  study  naturally  led  men  to 
a  respect  for  the  Imperial  power,  and  thus  helped  to 
give  the  claims  of  the  Emperors  a  new  source  of 
strength.  We  shall  see  presently  the  effects  of  these 
different  tendencies  when  we  come  to  the  history  of 
the  Emperors  during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies. 

3.  The   Nations  of  Europe. — Nearly  all  the 
nations  of  Modern  Europe  had  now  come  into  being 


1 6*  VIEW  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [CHAP. 

We  may  even  say  that  the  two  Empires  themselves 
had  begun  to  answer  to  two  of  those  nations.  For 
the  Eastern  Empire  had,  through  the  conquests  of  the 
Turks,  come  to  answer  pretty  nearly  to  those  parts  of 
Europe  and  of  the  coasts  of  Asia  where  Greek  was  the 
prevailing  language.  That  is  to  say,  the  Roman 
Empire  of  the  East  might  be  said,  speaking  roughly,  to 
have  become  a  Greek  state.  And,  speaking  still  more 
roughly,  it  might  even  be  said  that  the  Roman  Empire 
of  the  West  had  become  a  German  state.  For  Ger- 
many was  now  the  heart  and  centre  of  the  Empire, 
though  the  possession  of  the  Kingdoms  of  Italy 
and  Burgundy  of  course  gave  the  Emperors  many 
Romance-speaking  subjects.  Southern  Italy,  it  will 
be  remembered,  now  formed  part  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Sicily.  To  the  west  of  Germany  and  Burgundy, 
beyond  the  Rhone,  the  Saone,  and  the  Maes,  lay  the 
Kingdom  of  France,  the  lands  held  by  the  King  of  the 
French  and  his  vassals.  In  the  Spanish  peninsula  the 
Christian  states  of  Castile  and  Leon,  Navarre,  Aragon, 
and  Portugal,  were  all  growing  up,  and  were  gradually 
driving  the  Mahometans  into  the  southern  part  called 
Andalusia.  These  countries  had  now  so  little  to  do 
with  the  Empire  that  more  than  one  of  the  Kings  of 
Castile  took  the  title  of  Emperor,  as  being  the  chief 
princes  in  their  own  peninsula,  just  as  the  West-Saxon 
Kings  had  done  the  like,  as  being  the  chief  princes  in 
their  own  island.  It  was  only  towards  the  East,  where 
Germany  bordered  on  the  Slavonic  nations,  that  the 
Empire  had  much  chance  of  extending  itself.  The 
Wends,  the  Slavonic  people  slong  the  south  coast  of 
the  Baltic,  in  Mecklenburg  and  Pomerania  and  the 
other  lands  beyond  the  Elbe,  gradually  became  Chris- 
tians and  were  joined  on  to  Germany,  and  the  Low- 
Dutch  language  gradually  displaced  the  Slavonic. 
Bohemia  became  a  dependent  st^fe,  but  it  kept  its 
own  Dukes  who  afterwards  became  Kings.  So  in  the 
other  chief  Slavonic  country,  that  of  Poland,  the  Dukes 


x.]  THE  NATIONS  OF  EUROPE.  163 

and  Kings  had  sometimes  to  submit  to  the  Empeiors,, 
but  in  the  end  Poland  gradually  became  quite  inde- 
pendent, while  Bohemia  became  more  and  more 
closely  joined  on  to  the  Empire.  We  may  say  nearly 
the  same  of  the  Kingdom  of  the  Magyars  in  Hungary. 
To  the  east  of  Poland  and  Hungary,  Lithuania,  where 
the  people  were  still  heathens,  and  Russia,  where  they 
belonged  to  the  Eastern  Church,  had  very  little  to  do 
with  Western  Europe.  In  Northern  Europe,  Denmark, 
Sweden,  and  Norway  were  distinct  kingdoms.  Swe- 
den and  Norway  had,  from  their  position,  very  little  to 
do  with  the  rest  of  Europe,  except  so  far  as  the  Orkneys 
and  the  other  islands  oft"  Scotland  were  still  closely 
connected  with  Norway.  But  Denmark  was  a  very 
important  power,  and  its  Kings  made  large  conquests 
in  various  parts  of  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic.  England, 
as  we  have  said,  had  become  thoroughly  welded  into 
one  kingdom  under  the  Norman  Kings.  Scotland  was 
a  distinct  kingdom,  but  its  Kings  were  held  to  be  the 
men  of  the  English  Kings.  And,  during  the  time  with 
which  we  are  now  concerned,  came  the  beginnings  of 
the  English  Conquest  of  Ireland.  We  thus  see  that 
most  of  the  European  states  which  still  exist  had 
already  come  into  being.  From  this  point  therefore 
we  may,  for  the  most  part,  leave  the  internal  affairs  of 
each  country  to  be  dealt  with  in  its  own  special 
History.  But  we  must  still  go  on  with  our  sketch  of 
those  events  which  affected  the  history  of  the  nations 
in  general,  and  this  will  be  a  good  point  to  say  some- 
thing about  the  state  of  government,  religion,  and 
other  matters  during  what  are  called  the  Middle  Ages. 
4.  Changes  in  the  Old  Teutonic  Constitu- 
tion.— We  saw  at  the  very  beginning  of  this  book 
that  all  the  Aryan  nations  set  out,  as  far  as  we  can  see, 
with  very  much  the  same  kind  of  government.  There 
was  a  King  or  chief  as  the  leader,  there  was  a  smaller 
Council  of  nobles  or  old  men,  and  there  was  a  general 
Assembly  of  the  whole  people.  This  was  the  form  o/ 


1 64  VIEW  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [CIIAF. 

government  of  the  Teutonic  nations  at  the  time  when 
they  began  to  settle  within  the  Roman  Empire.  There 
were  commonly  three  classes  of  men  in  the  state,  the 
nobles,  the  common  freemen,  and  the  stoves.  And  men 
became  slaves  in  two  ways,  either  by  being  made 
prisoners  of  war  or  by  being  condemned  to  slavery  for 
some  crime.  And  it  was  also  usual,  especially  in  war- 
time, for  men  to  attach  themselves  to  the  service  of 
some  particular  leader,  to  become  his  companions  or 
his  men,  who  were  bound  to  be  faithful  to  him  and 
who  looked  to  share  such  rewards  as  he  had  to  give 
them.  This  we  may  call  the  old  Teutonic  Constitution, 
as  being  at  first  common  to  all  the  Teutonic  nations. 
But  our  own  forefathers,  when  they  settled  in  Britain, 
swept  away  all  Roman  institutions  more  utterly  than 
was  done  in  any  part  of  the  mainland.  Scandinavia 
too  never  came  under  the  Roman  power  at  all.  It 
was  therefore  in  Britain  and  Scandinavia  that  this  old 
constitution  lasted  longest  on  a  great  scale.  In  those 
parts  of  the  mainland  which  had  always  belonged  to 
the  Empire  things  went  on  somewhat  differently.  As 
we  have  already  said,  Roman  and  Teutonic  institutions 
influenced  one  another.  As  the  Roman  Empire  be- 
came something  quite  different  when  it  began  to  be 
held  by  German  Kings,  so  the  Teutonic  Constitution 
was  greatly  changed  by  the  Roman  laws  and  institu- 
tions which  were  already  established.  The  cities,  for 
instance,  kept  up  something  of  their  Roman  constitu- 
tions ;  and,  as  men  learned  something  of  the  Roman 
Law,  they  began  to  attribute  to  the  Teutonic  Kings 
something  of  the  great  powers  of  the  Roman  Emperors. 
And  of  course  they  did  this  all  the  more  after  the 
Frankish  Kings  had  actually  become  Roman  Em- 
perors. And  one  institution  arose  out  of  the  mixture 
of  Ronidji  and  Teutonic  ideas  which  has  had  a  most 
important  influence  on  the  world  ever  since. 

5.     Origin  of  Fiefs. — It  had  been  very  commoa 
under  the  Roman  government  to  grant  lands  on  coo- 


X.]  FEUDAL    TENURES.  165 

dition  of  military  service.  But  such  lands  weie  held  of 
the  Roman  Commonwealth  or  of  the  Emperor  as  its 
head,  and  their  holding  did  not  create  any  particular 
personal  relation  between  one  man  and  another.  But 
when  this  Roman  custom  was  combined  with  the 
Teutonic  custom  of  men  following  a  chief  as  their 
personal  lord,  a  peculiar  relation  arose  out  of  the 
union  of  the  two.  The  lord  granted  lands  to  his  wan 
or  vassal,  on  condition  of  his  being  faithful  to  him  and 
doing  him  service  in  war.  The  land  so  granted  was 
called  a  feudum,  fief,  or  fee;  and  land  held  in  this 
way  was  said  to  be  held  by  a  feudal  tenure.  Land 
which  was  a  man's  very  own,  which  was  not  held  of 
any  lord  but  was  subject  only  to  the  laws  of  the  state, 
<vas  called  allodial.  But  it  often  happened  that  men 
whose  estates  were  small  found  it  better  to  turn  their 
allodial  holdings  into  feudal,  and  to  agree  to  hold  their 
land  of  some  powerful  lord,  in  order  to  get  his  pro- 
tection. And  the  same  thing  was  sometimes  done  on 
a  great  scale,  when  a  prince  who  was  conquered,  or 
who  feared  that  he  might  be  conquered,  agreed  to  hold 
his  dominions  in  fief  of  the  Emperor  rather  than 
lose  them  altogether. 

6.  Effects  of  the  Feudal  Tenures.  —  The 
general  introduction  of  these  feuda/  or  irvuitary  tenures 
caused  some  important  changes  both  in  political  and 
in  social  matters.  The  change  was  made  gradually, 
and  it  was  slower  in  England  than  in  most  parts  of 
the  Continent ;  but  its  general  effect  was  to  raise  those 
men  who  held  their  lands  by  these  new  tenures  above 
all  others,  and  to  thrust  the  poorer  freemen  lower 
down.  In  many  countries  they  gradually  sank  into 
the  state  of  serfs  or  villains ;  that  is,  men  who  are  not 
actually  slaves  to  be  bought  and  sold  man  by  man, 
but  who  are  bound  to  the  land  and  pass  with  it. 
Meanwhile  the  class  of  actual  slaves  was  dying  out,  and 
the  class  of  villains  was  increased  both  by  the  freemen 
who  fell  down  to  it,  and  by  the  slaves  who  were  raised 


1 66  VIEW  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [CHAP. 

into  it.  The  smaller  freemen  also  lost  power  in 
another  way.  The  old  Teutonic  Constitution,  by 
which  each  freeman  had  a  right  to  appear  in  the 
national  Assembly,  could  no  longer  be  fully  carried 
out  when  the  Franks  or  any  other  people  had  got 
possession  of  a  large  country.  All  men  could  not 
come  in  their  own  persons,  and  it  was  not  for  a  long 
time,  not  till  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  century,  that 
any  one  thought  of  choosing  a  smaller  number  of  men 
to  speak  and  act  on  behalf  of  all,  as  is  now  done  in 
Parliament,  and  as  is  done  in  most  of  the  countries  of 
Europe  and  America.  From  all  these  causes  working 
together  two  chief  results  happened.  First,  in  most 
parts  of  Europe  the  old  national  Assemblies  either 
quite  died  out,  or  were  attended  only  by  the  chief  men 
who  could  come  in  their  own  persons.  Secondly,  each 
province  or  district  had  a  tendency  to  set  up  for  itself. 
The  Count  or  Duke,  who  was  at  first  merely  the 
governor  of  a  province,  often  grew  into  an  hereditary 
prince,  acknowledging  the  Emperor  or  other  King  as 
the  lord  of  whom  he  held  his  dominions  in  fief,  but 
acting  almost  as  an  independent  sovereign  in  the 
internal  government  of  those  dominions. 

7.  Comparison  of  Different  Countries. — 
These  tendencies  were  more  or  less  at  work  in  every 
part  of  Western  Europe,  but  they  were  carried  out 
more  fully  and  more  quickly  in  some  countries  than  in 
others.  Scandinavia  and  England  up  to  the  time  of 
the  Norman  Conquest  were  less  affected  by  them  than 
other  countries.  In  England  the  national  Assemblies 
never  died  out,  but,  as  the  Kings  of  the  West-Saxons 
grew  into  Kings  of  the  English,  the  Assembly  of  Wessex 
became  the  national  Assembly  of  all  England.  The 
entering  of  the  Normans  greatly  strengthened  the 
power  of  the  Crown,  and  thereby  made  the  nation 
more  thoroughly  one.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
greatly  strengthened  the  feudal  ideas,  till  it  was  thought 
that  all  land  must  be  held  of  a  lord,  of  the  King  o< 


x.]  WAYS  OF  APPOINTING  KINGS.  i6j 

course  in  the  first  instance,  as  the  supreme  lord.  In 
Germany  also  the  national  Assemblies  never  died 
out;  but  the  Bishops,  Dukes,  Counts,  and  other 
princes  gradually  became  sovereigns  within  their  own 
dominions,  and  the  Diet  or  Assembly  of  the  Empire 
gradually  became  little  more  than  a  meeting  of  princes. 
In  Italy  things  took  a  course  so  different  from  other 
countries  that  it  will  be  well  to  speak  of  it  by  itself. 
France  for  a  while  fell  asunder  more  completely  than 
any  other  kingdom.  The  national  Assemblies  ceased 
altogether,  and  the  Kings  became  mere  nominal  lords 
over  the  great  princes  who  held  fiefs  of  them.  But 
this  in  the  end  led  to  a  greater  strengthening  of  the 
royal  power  in  France  than  in  any  other  kingdom. 
For  the  Kings  of  the  French  step  by  step  got  into 
their  own  hands  nearly  all  the  dominions  of  theii 
vassals,  as  well  as  those  of  many  of  their  neighbours 
who  were  not  their  vassals.  Thus,  for  the  very 
reason  that  the  French  Kings  had  once  had  much 
less  power  than  either  the  Emperors  or  the  English 
Kings,  they  came  in  the  end  to  have  much  more 
power  than  either  of  them. 

8.  Ways  of  Appointing  Kings. — As  for  the 
way  in  which  Kings  were  appointed,  by  the  old 
Teutonic  Constitution  the  Kings  were  chosen  by  the 
people,  but  for  the  most  part  out  of  one  particular 
family.  In  England  this  way  of  choosing  Kings  lasted 
till  the  Norman  Conquest,  and  died  out  only  very 
gradually  afterwards.  The  Prankish  or  German 
Kings,  who  by  virtue  of  their  election  in  Germany  had 
a  right  to  become  Roman  Emperors,  were  always 
elected.  But  in  the  twelfth  century  the  right  of  elec- 
tion began  gradually  to  be  confined  to  a  few  of  the 
chief  princes  of  Germany,  who  were  fixed  at  seven, 
and  who  bore  the  special  title  of  Electors.  But  the 
Emperors,  whenever  they  could,  got  their  sons  to  be 
chosen  Kings  in  their  lifetime,  as  Henry  the  Third 
and  Fourth  both  did.  In  this  case,  when  the  young 


168  VIKW  OF  Tin-.  MIDDLE  AGES.         [CHAP. 

King's  father  died,  he  went  on  reigning  without  any 
interregnum,  and  in  due  time  he  was  crowned  Em- 
peror.  In  France  the  crown  became  more  strictly 
hereditary  than  anywhere  else,  because,  for  more  than 
three  hundred  years  after  the  election  of  Hugh  Capet, 
every  King  of  the  French  left  a  son  ready  to  suc- 
ceed him,  who  had  sometimes  been  crowned  in  his 
father's  lifetime.  Thus  in  France  the  male  line  went 
on  without  any  break,  while,  both  in  Germany  and  in 
England,  the  crown  passed  several  times  from  one 
family  to  another,  though  the  several  dynasties  were 
commonly  of  kin  to  one  another  through  female 
descent.  All  that  we  have  now  been  saying  has 
to  do  only  with  Western  Europe.  In  the  East  the 
system  of  fiefs  was  never  brought  in  till  the  Latins 
began  to  make  conquests  at  the  expense  of  the 
Eastern  Emperors.  And  in  the  East  too  the  Empire 
went  on  as  it  had  done  from  the  time  of  the  first 
Caesars,  often  staying  in  one  family  for  several  genera- 
tions, but  being  often  seized  on  by  any  general  or  lead- 
ing man  who  was  strong  enough.  This  was  a  state  of 
things  which  had  quite  passed  away  in  the  West.  In 
the  Eastern  Empire  too  the  power  of  the  Emperors 
remained  quite  despotic ;  still  their  government  never 
became  quite  like  the  despotisms  of  the  East,  as  it  was 
always  tempered  by  some  remembrance  of  the  old 
laws  and  traditions  of  Rome. 

9.  State  of  Religion. — By  this  time  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  Europe  was  Christian.  Polarul  and 
Hungary  were  converted  about  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century,  and  the  Scandinavian  countries,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  about  the  same  time.  Only  the  Prus- 
sians and  Lithuanians,  and  the  Fins  and  Laps  in 
the  extreme  North,  remained  heathen.  In  Spain  the 
Saracens  and  Moors  were  of  course  Mahometans,  and 
there  were  still  Mahometans  in  Sicily  under  the 
Norman  Kings.  But,  while  nearly  all  Europe  thus 
became  Christian,  the  division  between  the  two  greal 


x.]  STATE  OF  RELIGION.  169 

branches  of  the  Church  had  become  wider  than  ever 
After  the  eleventh  century  there  seemed  no  hope  of  a 
reconciliation  between  the  Churches  of  Old  and  New 
Rome.  In  the  West  the  power  of  the  Popes  wag 
steadily  growing,  and  it  was  at  its  height  from  the 
eleventh  century  to  the  thirteenth,  during  which  time 
several  Popes  followed  the  example  of  Gregory  the 
Seventh,  in  taking  upon  themselves  to  depose  the. 
Emperors  and  other  Kings,  and  to  give  away  their 
dominions.  And,  while  the  power  of  the  Popes  was 
thus  growing  at  the  expense  of  civil  rulers,  it  was 
growing  no  less  fast  at  the  expense  of  national 
Churches  in  each  particular  country.  And,  as  the  rule 
by  which  the  clergy  were  forbidden  to  marry  was 
spreading  everywhere,  they  were  becoming  a  class 
more  and  more  separate  from  other  men,  and  more 
and  more  obedient  to  the  Popes.  In  all  this  there  was 
much  that  we  cannot  help  blaming,  and  the  Popes  and 
clergy  often  thought  too  much  of  the  interests  of  their 
own  order,  and  not  of  the  welfare  of  the  Church  in 
general ;  still  we  must  remember  that  the  Popes  and 
other  clergy  kept  up  religion  and  learning,  and  a 
general  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  in  very  rough  and 
wild  times.  There  was  much  to  blame  in  their  own 
doings,  but  they  were  a  great  check  on  the  evil 
passions  of  men  ;  and,  whatever  we  say  of  the  Popes 
in  particular,  the  general  influence  of  the  clergy  was  a 
powerful  influence  for  good. 

10.  Position  of  the  Clergy. — As  the  Popes  were 
constantly  taking  to  themselves  power  in  temporal 
matters,  so  we  find  that  in  these  times  the  clergy  in 
general  took  a  part  in  temporal  affairs  which  we  should 
now  think  very  strange.  But  this  was  by  no  means 
wholly  the  fault  of  the  clergy  ;  as  things  were  then, 
it  could  hardly  be  otherwise.  The  clergy  had  nearly 
all  the  knowledge  of  the  time  in  their  hands,  so  that 
it  could  not  fail  that  they  were  largely  employed  in  all 
matters,  including  many  which  did  not  exactly  belong 


i;o  VIEW  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.        [CHAP 

to  their  own  duties.  They  acted  as  ministers  of  Kings 
and  as  lawyers,  and  many  of  them  did  not  scruple  to 
wear  weapons  and  fight,  though  this  was  always  held 
to  be  a  wrong  thing  and  against  the  laws  of  the  Church. 
In  all  parts  of  Western  Christendom  the  bishopricks 
and  monasteries  and  other  ecclesiastical  bodies  were 
richly  endowed,  and  held  great  lands  and  lordships, 
In  Germany  especially  most  of  the  Bishops  and  Abbots 
were  princes  of  the  Empire,  and  the  three  Archbishops 
of  Mainz,  Koln,  and  Trier  (called  in  French  Mayence, 
Cologne,  and  Treves)  were  among  the  Electors  of  the 
Emperor.  In  other  countries  they  did  not  rise  to 
such  power  as  this,  but  they  were  always  high  in  tem- 
poral rank  and  were  chief  members  of  the  Parliament 
or  other  national  Assembly. 

ii.  The  Monastic  Orders.  —  The  distinction 
between  the  regular  and  the  secular  clergy  was  now 
fully  established.  The  regular  clergy  were  those 
who  went  out  of  the  world  and  lived  together  as 
monks  in  monasteries  ;  the  seculars  were  those  who 
lived  in  the  world  as  parish  priests  or  as  canons  of 
cathedral  and  coftegiate  churches.  There  were  many 
learned  men  in  both  classes ;  but  we  have  on  the 
whole  more  histories  and  other  books  written  by  the 
regulars  than  by  the  seculars.  The  oldest  monks  in 
the  West  were  the  Benedictines,  who  followed  the  rule 
of  Saint  Benedict,  the  great  founder  of  the  monastic 
life  in  Italy  in  the  sixth  century.  But,  as  the  Bene- 
dictines grew  rich  and  their  discipline  became  less 
strict,  other  orders  of  monks  arose,  who  professed  to 
bring  back  an  older  and  stricter  discipline.  Such 
were  the  Cistercians,  an  order  of  which  many  houses 
were  founded  in  the  twelfth  century ;  and  in  the 
thirteenth  arose  the  different  orders  of  Friars,  as 
the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans,  called  after  their 
founders  Saint  Francis  and  Saint  Dominic,  who  pro- 
fessed more  complete  poverty  than  the  older  orders, 
and  gave  themselves  much  to  preaching.  All  thesf 


x.]  LANGUAGE  AND  LEARNING.  171 

different  revivals,  one  after  the  other,  did  good  at 
the  time,  both  among  the  monks  and  among  other 
men ;  but  each  new  order  commonly  came  in  the 
end  to  be  rich  and  corrupt,  like  those  which  it  had 
undertaken  to  reform,  and  so  a  new  reformation  wa? 
needed.  But  the  strangest  thing  of  all  was  that  during 
the  Crusades  there  arose  orders  of  monks  who  were 
also  soldiers — men  who  took  the  vows  of  monks, 
but  whose  further  business  it  was  to  fight  against  the 
enemies  of  Christianity.  Two  of  these  military  orders, 
the  Templars  and  the  Hospitallers  or  Knights  of  Saint 
John,  were  the  chief  defence  of  the  Christian  kingdom 
of  Jerusalem.  Another  order  of  this  kind,  called  the 
Teutonu  Knights,  arose  in  Palestine  towards  the  end 
of  the  twelfth  century,  and  in  the  course  of  the  thirteenth 
they  undertook  to  convert  or  conquer  the  heathens  on 
the  coast  of  the  Baltic,  in  Prussia  and  Livonia,  where 
the  order  held  principalities.  Thus  strangely  were 
religious  zeal  and  the  love  of  fighting  mixed  up  in 
these  times. 

12.  Language  and  Learning. — In  all  this  it 
must  be  remembered  that  we  are  speaking  wholly  of 
Western  Christendom,  and  more  especially  when  we 
speak  of  knowledge  being  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy. 
In  the  Eastern  Empire  both  the  regular  and  secular 
clergy  play  a  great  part  in  history,  but  they  neither  had 
all  learning  to  themselves,  nor  did  they  fill  temporal 
offices  in  the  same  way  in  which  they  did  in  the  West. 
In  the  East,  where  the  Empire  had  gone  on  uninter- 
ruptedly without  any  lasting  barbarian  conquests,  learn- 
ing had  never  died  out  among  the  laity.  The  Latin 
language  was  now  quite  forgotten  in  the  East.  Greek 
was  the  one  tongue  which  men  both  wrote  and  spoke, 
though  of  course  they  wrote  much  better  Greek  than 
they  spoke.  Many  of  the  Histories  which  were  written 
at  Constantinople  at  this  time  were  written  by  laymen, 
often  by  Emperors  and  other  men  of  high  rank.  Bui 
in  the  West  there  was  nowhere  any  one  language  con* 


,72  VIEW  Of    THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

rnon  to  all  classes  of  men.  The  use  of  Latin  was 
everywhere  kept  up  for  all  purposes  of  religion  and 
learning.  The  Church  service  was  still  said  in  Latin, 
though  Latin  was  now  nowhere  the  common  language  of 
the  people.  For  in  Germany,  England,  and  Scandi- 
navia men  spoke  their  own  Teutonic  languages,  and 
in  Italy,  Aquitaine,  Spain,  and  France  men  spoke  the 
Romance  tongues,  which  we  must  now  look  on  as  lan- 
guages distinct  from  the  Latin.  It  thus  came  about 
that  very  few  books  were  written  by  laymen,  and  that 
very  few  books  were  anywhere  written  in  the  speech 
of  the  people.  Still,  more  books  were  written  in  the 
speech  of  the  people  in  the  Teutonic  than  in  the 
Romance  countries,  because  no  one  could  help  knowing 
that  High-Dutch,  English,  or  Danish  was  quite  a  differ-, 
ent  language  from  Latin ;  while  men  for  a  long  time 
looked  on  the  -vulgar  tongue,  as  it  was  called,  in  the 
Romance  countries,  simply  as  bad  Latin,  which  no  one 
would  think  of  writing.  Thus  we  have  many  Old- 
English,  and  some  High-Dutch,  writings  older  than 
anything  in  any  of  the  Romance  tongues.  The  English 
have  what  no  other  nation  has,  a  History  of  their 
own  people  from  the  beginning  written  in  their  owo 
language.  In  Scandinavia  too  men  wrote  their  own 
legends  and  histories  in  their  own  tongue.  We  begin 
to  get  French  verse  in  the  twelfth  century,  but  it  is  not 
till  the  thirteenth  century  that  we  get  any  prose.  It 
is  somewhat  later  that  we  come  to  the  first  great  work 
of  Italian  literature  in  the  famous  poem  of  Dantt 
Alighieri.  The  first  chief  writers  in  both  these  lan- 
guages were,  as  might  be  supposed,  laymen.  The 
twelfth  century  was  a  great  new  birth  of  learning  and 
science  everywhere,  partly  because  men  then  began  to 
have  more  dealings  with  the  Greeks  and  Saracens. 
Still,  even  after  this  time,  laymen  in  Northern  Europe 
were,  as  a  rule,  not  taught  to  read  and  write,  though 
reading  and  writing  gradually  became  more  common, 
and  it  must  always  be  remembered  fhat,  when  a  man 


x.]  GROWTH  OF  THE  TOWNS.  173 

could  not  write,  it  does  not  at  all  follow  that  he  could 
not  read. 

13.  Growth  of  the  Towns. — Another  thing 
must  here  be  mentioned,  which  was  of  special  import- 
ance at  the  time  which  we  have  just  come  to.  This 
was  the  growing  up  of  the  towns  into  greater,  in  some 
parts  into  the  very  first,  importance.  In  the  old  state 
of  things,  Greek  and  Roman,  the  towns  had,  so  to 
speak,  been  everything.  Every  freeman  was  a  citizen 
of  some  town  or  other,  and  the  Roman  dominion  was 
throughout  a  dominion  of  one  city  bearing  rule  over 
other  cities.  The  Teutonic  settlements  everywhere 
drove  the  towns  back ;  none  of  the  Teutonic  nations 
were  used  to  a  town  life.  They  looked  on  the 
walls  of  a  town  as  a  prison.  In  Britain,  the  inhab- 
itants, who  knew  nothing  of  Roman  civilization,  seem 
at  first  to  have  utterly  destroyed  the  Roman  towns, 
and  it  was  not  till  some  time  after  the  first  conquest 
that  new  English  towns  began  to  arise,  very  often  on 
the  old  Roman  sites.  In  the  other  provinces,  the 
Goths,  Franks,  and  other  Teutonic  settlers  did  not 
destroy  the  Roman  towns  ;  but  the  towns  lost  much  of 
their  importance  and  local  freedom.  But,  as  civilization 
began  to  grow  again,  new  towns  began  to  spring  up, 
and  the  old  towns  to  win  back  something  of  their 
old  greatness.  In  Germany  the  Saxon  Kings  and 
Emperors  were  great  founders  of  towns;  and,  both 
there  and  in  other  parts  of  the  Empire,  the  old  and 
the  new  towns  alike  gradually  won  for  themselves  great 
privileges,  which  made  them  almost  independent  within 
their  own  walls.  And,  as  the  Imperial  power  declined 
and  the  Dukes  and  Counts  grew  into  sovereign  princes, 
so  in  the  same  way  the  free  Imperial  cities  grew  into 
sovereign  commonwealths,  acknowledging  only  the 
outward  supremacy  of  the  Emperor.  And  in  many 
cases,  like  the  towns  of  old  Greece  and  Italy,  they 
joined  together  in  Leagues  for  mutual  defence.  Thus 
in  Northern  Germany,  the  Hanseatic  League,  thf 


174  VIEW  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.         [CH\* 

league  of  the  great  trading  towns,  became  a  great 
power  in  all  the  Northern  seas,  and  often  gave  law  to 
the  Kings  of  Denmark  and  Sweden.  But  the  part  of 
the  Empire  where  the  towns  rose  to  the  highest  pitch 
of  greatness  was  Italy,  especially  the  northern  part. 
There,  from  the  eleventh  century  onwards,  the  towns, 
as  we  may  say,  became  everything,  just  as  they  had 
been  in  old  Greece.  Here  nearly  the  whole  country 
was  parted  out  among  the  dominions  of  the  different 
cities,  and  the  whole  land  became  again  an  assemblage 
of  commonwealths,  independent  of  any  power  but 
that  of  the  Emperor.  But,  though  the  freedom  of  the 
Italian  towns  became  greater  than  that  of  the  towns 
of  Germany,  it  was  not  so  lasting.  In  Germany  a 
great  many  of  the  towns  always  kept  their  freedom ; 
and  three  of  them,  the  Hanse  Towns  of  Liibeck,  Bremen, 
and  Hamburg,  are  separate  commonwealths  even  now. 
But  in  Italy  most  of  the  cities  fell,  just  as  those  of  old 
Greece  did  long  before,  into  the  hands  either  of  native 
lords  or  Tyrants  or  into  those  of  foreign  princes. 
Thus  it  was  that  Italy  became  divided,  or  rather 
grouped  together,  into  the  various  principalities  which 
have  lately  been  joined  together  again  into  the 
restored  Kingdom  of  Italy.  But  a  few  common- 
wealths contrived  to  go  on  till  the  end  of  the  last 
century,  and  one  very  small  one,  that  of  San  Marino, 
remains  still. 

14.  Summary. — These  are  some  of  the  chief  cha- 
racteristics which  we  may  look  on  as  distinguishing 
the  times  known  as  the  Middle  Ages  from  times  earlier 
and  later.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  when  the  Middle 
Ages  begin  and  end,  as  the  name  is  nothing  more 
than  a  convenient  way  of  speaking.  But  the  ten- 
dencies of  which  we  have  been  speaking  were  about  at 
their  height  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  in 
the  time  of  the  Swabian  Emperors.  We  have  now, 
so  to  speak,  got  quite  clear  of  the  old  Roman  times, 
while  we  have  not  yet  got  into  the  times  which  are 


xi.]  THE  SWAB  TAN  EMPERORS.  175 

more  like  those  in  which  we  now  live.  In  the  course 
of  the  thirteenth  century  we  shall  corne  across  great 
changes. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    SWABIAN    EMPERORS. 

The  Hohenstaufen  Kings  and  Emperors  j  origin  of  thi 
names  Cue  If  and  Ghibelin  (i) — reign  and  crusade  of 
Conrad  (i) — reign  of  Frederick  Barbarossa;  his  deal- 
ings with  the  Italian  cities,  with  the  Popes,  with  Kings 
of  Sitijy,  with  the  Eastern  Empire  (2) — reign  of  Henry 
the  Sixth  ;  his  conquest  of  Sicily  (3) — double  election 
of  Philip  and  Otto ;  reign  of  Frederick  the  Second; 
his  dealings  with  Sicily,  Germany,  Italy,  and  the  Popes 
(4) — reign  of  Conrad  the  Fourth  ;  end  of  the  Swabian 
dynasty  ;  decline  of  the  Imperial  power  (4) — relations 
between  England  and  France ;  dominions  of  the 
Angevin  Kings;  reign  of  Henry  the  Second  (5) — 
rivalry  of  Philip  Augustus  and  Richard  Cceur-de-Lion 
(5) — reign  of  John  in  England  j  his  forfeiture  of.  Nor- 
mandy (5)— victory  of  Philip  at  Bouvines;  Lewis  of 
France  in  England  (5) — reign  of  Lewis  the  Eighth 
(6) — reign  of  Saint  Lewis  ;  his  dealings  with  Henry 
the  Third;  annexation  of  Toulouse  (6) — effects  of  Hie 
reign  of  Saint  Lewis ;  advance  of  the  French  Kingdom 
(6) — growth  of  the  English  Constitution;  union  of 
Normans  and  English  against  foreigners  (7) — reforms 
of  Simon  of  Montfort;  nature  of  national  assemblies 
in  England  and  elsewhere  (7) — the  English  conyuesl 
of  Ireland  (8) — state  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem; 
the  Second  Crusade ;  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  Saladin 
(9) — Crusade  of  the  Emperor  Frederick,  and  the  Kings 
Philip  and  Richard  (10) — Frederick  the  Second  wins 
back  Jerusalem ;  its  final  capticre  by  the  Chorasmians 
(10) — Crusades  of  Saint  Lewis  and  of  Edward  the 
First ;  final  loss  of  the  Holy  Land  (10) — revival  of 
the  Eastern  Empire  under  the  Komnenian  dynasty ; 
Us  decline  (nl — Fourth  Crusade  ;  taking  of  Ccnstan- 


176  THE  SWABIAN  EMPERORS. 

tinople  by  the  Franks  and  Venetians  ( 1 1 ) —  The  Latin 
Empire  of  Constantinople ;  Eastern  dominion  of  Vaunt 
(1-2)— -formation  of  various  principalities  in  the  East; 
Emperors  of  Nikaia  and  Trebizond  (12) — Constanti- 
nople recovered  by  the  Greeks;  dynasty  of  the  Palaio- 
logoi  (12) — the  Albigenses j  Crusades  waged  against 
them  ;  suppression  of  their  sect  and  of  their  national 
independence  (13') — reign  of  Manfred  in  Sicily  j 
Crusades  preached  against  him  (14) — conqttest  of  Sicily 
by  Charles  of  Anjou;  execution  of  Conradin ;  revolt 
0f  the  island  of  Sicily  (14) — state  of  North-eastern 
Europe;  advance  of  Denmark  east  of  the  Baltic  (15) 
— establishment  of  t/te  Teutonic  Knights  in  Prussia, 
and  Livonia  (15) — new  Mahometan  dynasties  in  Spain; 
victories  of  the  Caliph  Jacob  (16) — advance  of  the 
Christian  Kingdoms  of  Castile,  Aragon,  and  Portugal ; 
the  Moors  confined  to  Granada  (16) — rise  of  the  Moguls  > 
reigns  of  Jenghiz  and  his  descendants  (17) — invasion 
of  Central  Europe  by  Batou  Khan;  subjection  of 
Russia  (17) — overthrow  of  the  Caliphate  and  of  the 
Seljuk  Turks  (17) — Summary  (18). 

i.  Origin  of  the  Guelfs  and  Ghibelins. — 
On  the  death  of  Henry  the  Fifth  in  1125,  Lothar, 
Duke  of  Saxony,  was  elected  King,  and  in  1133  ne 
was  crowned  Emperor.  He  submitted  more  readily 
to  the  Popes  than  most  Emperors  did,  and  Pope  Inno- 
cent the  Second  even  gave  out  that  he  became  his  man 
at  his  coronation.  But  on  Lothar's  death  the  Impe- 
rial Crown  passed  to  one  of  the  greatest  families 
which  ever  held  it,  that  of  the  Hohcnstaufen  or  Dukes 
of  Swabia.  The  first  King  of  that  house  was  Conrad 
the  Third,  who  reigned  as  King  from  1138  to  1152, 
but  who  was  never  crowned  Emperor.  He  was  the 
son  of  a  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Henry  the  Fourth, 
so  that  the  Swabian  dynasty  did  in  a  manner  continue 
the  line  of  the  Franconian  Emperors.  It  might  also 
be  said  to  continue  then  in  their  policy ;  for  the 
Emperors  of  this  family  had  fully  as  much  to  do 
in  disputing  with  the  Popes  as  the  Franconiao 
Emperors  had  done.  This  however  did  not  begin 


xi.  i  FREDERICK:  BARBAROSSA.  m 

in  the  time  of  King  Conrad,  though  the  two  names 
of  Guclf  and  Ghibelin,  which  presently  became  so 
famous  in  Italy,  began  during  his  reign  in  Germany. 
For  Conrad  had  several  wars  with  the  Saxons  and 
others  who  disliked  his  election,  and  in  one  of  the 
sieges  the  war-cry  of  the  rebels  was  Welf,  after  their 
leader,  Welf,  brother  of  Duke  Henry  of  Saxony,  while 
the  King's  men  shouted  Waibling,  the  name  of  a  village 
where  their  leader,  Duke  Frederick  of  Swabia,  the 
King's  brother,  had  been  brought  up.  These  names, 
written  in  an  Italian  fashion,  became  Guelfs  and  Ghi- 
belins :  the  Guelfs  meaning  those  who  supported  the 
Popes,  and  the  Ghibelins  those  who  supported  the 
Emperors.  King  Conrad  went  on  the  second  Crusade 
to  the  Holy  Land,  in  which  he  did  not  gain  much 
success ;  and  it  is  a  thing  to  be  noted  that  he  made  a 
league  with  Manuel,  the  Emperor  of  the  East,  against 
Roger  King  of  Sicily,  who  was  making  himself  dan- 
gerous to  both  Empires. 

2.  Reign  of  Frederick  Barbarossa. — But  the 
reign  of  Conrad  was  of  little  importance  compared 
with  that  of  his  nephew  and  successor  Frederick,  who, 
from  his  red  beard,  is  commonly  known  as  Frederick 
Barbarossa.  He  was  chosen  King  in  1152  ;  he  was 
crowned  Emperor  in  1155,  and  reigned  till  1190. 
The  greater  part  of  his  reign  was  taken  up  with  the 
affairs  and  wars  of  Italy.  The  Italian  cities,  as  has 
been  already  said,  had  grown  up  into  nearly  indepen- 
dent commonwealths.  They  often  had  wars  with  one 
another,  and,  just  as  in  old  Greece,  the  smaller  cities 
often  complained  of  the  oppression  of  the  greater. 
Thus  the  great  city  of  Milan  sought  to  bring  Como,Lodi, 
and  others  of  the  smaller  cities  under  its  power,  and  the 
smaller  cities  in  their  turn  prayed  the  Emperor  to  come 
to  their  help.  Some  of  the  cities,  as  Pavia,  which  had 
been  the  capital  in  the  Lombard  times,  and  the  great 
seafaring  commonwealth  of  Pisa,  were  always  strong 
on  the  side  of  the  Emperors.  But,  gradually,  most  o/ 


l?8  THE  SWABIAN  EMPERORS.  [CHAP 

the  cities  of  Northern  Italy  found  that  it  was  their 
interest  to  join  together  to  defend  their  independence 
against  the  Imperial  power.  Thus  was  formed  the 
Lombard  League,  with  which  Frederick  had  long  wars, 
which  will  be  best  spoken  of  in  the  special  History  of 
Italy.  But,  besides  the  cities,  the  Western  Emperors 
had  other  enemies  to  strive  against  in  Italy.  Popes 
and  Emperors  never  could  agree ;  disputes  arose  be- 
tween Frederick  and  Pope  Hadrian  the  Fourth,  who 
had  crowned  him.  When  Hadrian  died  in  1159,  a 
fiercer  dispute  broke  out ;  for  the  Popedom  was 
claimed  by  two  candidates,  Victor  and  Alexander. 
The  Emperor  took  the  side  of  Victor ;  therefore  the 
cities  which  were  against  him  naturally  took  the  other 
side,  and  Frederick  had  to  strive  against  all  who  fol- 
lowed Pope  Alexander.  The  Kings  of  Sicily  too, 
William  the  Good  and  William  the  Bad,  were  his 
enemies ;  and  the  Emperor  Manuel  Komnenos,  who 
dreamed  of  winning  back  Italy  for  the  Eastern  Empire, 
also  gave  help  to  the  revolted  cities.  The  end  was 
that  the  Emperor  had  to  make  peace  with  both  the 
Pope  and  the  cities,  and  in  1183  the  rights  of  the 
cities  were  acknowledged  in  a  treaty  or  law  of  the 
Empire,  passed  at  Constanz  or  Constance  in  Swabia, 
Besides  his  wars  in  Italy,  the  Emperor  Frederick  had 
also  to  strive  in  Germany  with  Henry  the  Lion,  who 
was  Duke  of  Saxony  and  Bavaria  at  once,  and  who 
married  Matilda,  daughter  of  Henry  the  Second  of 
England.  Duke  Henry  lost  the  greater  part  of  his 
dominions,  and  the  great  duchy  of  Saxony  was 
broken  up.  In  the  las'"  years  of  his  reign,  Frederick 
went  on  the  third  Crusade,  and  died  on  the  way. 

3.  Union  of  Sicily  with  the  Empire. — Fred- 
erick was  succeeded  by  his  son  Henry  the  Sixth,  who 
had  already  been  chosen  King,  and  who  in  the  next 
year,  1191,  was  crowned  Emperor.  The  chief  event 
of  his  reign  was  the  conquest  of  the  Kingdom  of  Sicily, 
which  he  claimed  in  right  of  his  wife  C  instance,  the 


xi.]  FREDERICK  THE  SECOND.  179 

daughter  of  the  first  King  William.  He  died  in  1197, 
leaving  his  son  Frederick  a  young  child.  But  he  had 
already  been  chosen  King  in  Germany,  and  he  suc- 
ceeded as  hereditary  King  in  Sicily.  The  Norman 
Kingdom  of  Sicily  thus  came  to  an  end,  except  so  far 
as  it  was  continued  in  Frederick,  who  was  descended 
from  the  Norman  Kings  through  his  mother. 

4.  Reign  of  Frederick  the  Second. — On  the 
death  of  the  Emperor  Henry,  the  election  of  young 
Frederick  seems  to  have  been  quite  forgotten,  and  the 
crown  was  disputed  between  his  uncle  Philip  oj 
Swctbia  and  Otto  of  Saxony,  the  son  of  Henry  the  Lion. 
Both  Kings  were  crowned,  and,  after  the  death  of 
Philip,  Otto  was  crowned  Emperor  in  1209.  But 
presently  young  Frederick  was  again  chosen,  and  in 
1220  he  was  crowned  Emperor,  and  reigned  thirty 
years  till  his  death  in  1250.  This  Frederick  the  Second, 
who  joined  together  so  many  crowns,  was  called  the 
Wonder  of  the  World.  And  he  well  deserved  the 
name,  for  perhaps  no  King  that  ever  reigned  had  greater 
natural  gifts,  and  in  thought  and  learning  he  was  far 
above  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  In  his  own  Kingdom 
of  Sicily  he  could  do  pretty  much  as  he  pleased,  and  it 
flourished  wonderfully  in  his  time.  But  in  Germany 
and  Italy  he  had  constantly  to  struggle  against  enemies 
of  all  kinds.  In  Germany  he  had  to  win  the  support 
of  the  princes  by  granting  them  privileges  which  did 
much  to  undermine  the  royal  power,  and  on  the  other 
hand  he  showed  no  favour  to  the  rising  power  of  the 
cities.  In  Italy  he  had  endless  strivings  with  one 
Pope  after  another,  with  Innocent  the  Third,  Honorius 
the  Third,  Gregory  the  Ninth,  and  Innocent  the  Fourth  ; 
as  well  as  with  the  Guelfic  cities,  which  withstood  him 
much  as  they  had  withstood  his  grandfather.  He  was 
more  than  once  excommunicated  by  the  Popes,  and 
in  1245  Pope  Innocent  the  Fourth  held  a  Council  at 
Lyons,  in  which  he  professed  to  depose  the  Emperor. 
More  than  one  King  was  chosen  in  opposition  to  him 


rSo  THE  SWAB  I  AN  EMPERORS.  [CHAP. 

in  Germany,  just  as  had  been  done  in  the  time  of 
Henry  the  Fourth,  and  there  were  civil  wars  all  his 
time,  both  in  Germany  and  in  Italy,  while  a  great  part  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Burgundy  was  beginning  to  slip  away 
from  the  Empire  altogether.  On  Frederick's  death, 
his  son  Conrad,  who  had  been  chosen  King  in  Ger- 
many in  1237,  and  who  of  course  succeeded  his  father 
in  the  hereditary  Kingdom  of  Sicily,  was  reckoned  as 
King  by  the  Ghibelins  in  Germany  and  Italy.  But  he 
died  in  1254,  and  he  was  never  crowned  Emperor. 
With  him  ended  the  line  of  Swabia  as  Emperors  and 
as  Kings  of  Germany  and  Italy.  Moreover,  from  the 
death  of  Frederick  the  Second,  we  may  look  on  the 
power  of  the  Empire,  as  the  great  leading  state  of 
Europe  and  the  centre  of  all  European  history,  as 
coming  to  an  end. 

5.  England  and  France. — While  the  Swabian 
Emperors  reigned  in  Germany  and  Italy,  the  Angevin 
Kings  reigned  in  England.  They  began  with  Henry 
the  Second,  the  grandson  of  Henry  the  First  through 
his  daughter  the  Empress  Matilda.  Now  came  the 
time  when  England  was  part  of  the  dominions  of  a 
prince  whose  greatest  power  lay  on  the  Continent 
The  dominions  which  Henry  held  through  his  father, 
his  mother,  and  his  wife,  took  up  nearly  the  whole  of 
Western  Gaul,  and  he  held  the  mouths  of  the  great 
rivers  Seine,  Loire,  and  Garonne.  Thus  it  came  that 
in  England  both  the  native  English  and  the  Norman 
settlers  were  brought  under  the  rule  of  a  King  who  was 
not  really  either  Norman  or  English.  Thus  too  it  came 
that  in  France  the  King  was  more  than  ever  shut  tip 
in  his  own  dominions,  when  nearly  the  whole  coast 
was  held  by  a  prince  who  was  Duke  of  Normandy  and 
Aquitaine  and  King  of  England  all  at  once.  Thus 
there  began  in  England  a  more  distinct  rule  of 
foreigners  over  all  the  natives  of  the  land  of  whatever 
race,  and  in  France 'the  rivalry  between  the  King  and 
his  great  vassal  is  more  marked  than  ever.  In  France 


XI.]  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.  181 

King  Lewis  the  Sixth,  who  reigned  from  1 108  to  1 137, 
had  done  something  to  strengthen  the  royal  authority 
and  he  had  also  favoured  the  growth  of  the  towns 
His  son  Lewis  the  Seventh  was  often  at  variance  with 
King  Henry  of  England,  but  no  very  great  changes 
happened  while  they  lived.  It  was  quite  different  in 
the  time  of  their  sons.  Lewis  died  in  1180,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son  Philip,  called  Philip  Augustus; 
and  Henry  died  in  1189,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  Richard,  called  Cceur-de-Lion  or  the  Lion-Heart, 
These  two  Kings  joined  in  a  Crusade,  of  which  we 
we  shall  say  more  presently  ;  but  enmity  went  on 
during  the  whole  of  their  reigns,  and  things  came  to  a 
head  in  the  time  of  ¥imgjohn  of  England,  who  suc- 
ceeded on  the  death  of  his  brother  Richard  in  1199. 
John  was  lawfully  chosen  King  according  to  English 
law,  and  it  does  not  seem  that  any  party  in  England 
thought  of  raising  any  one  else  to  the  throne.  But  a 
party  in  Richard's  foreign  dominions  wished  to  have 
for  their  Duke  young  Arthur,  the  son  of  John's  elder 
brother  Geoffrey,  whose  mother  was  Constance,  the 
heiress  of  Britanny.  John  got  Arthur  into  his  power, 
and  he  was  commonly  believed  to  have  murdered  him. 
This  of  course  raised  great  indignation  everywhere, 
and  Philip  took  advantage  of  it  to  cause  a  sentence  to 
be  passed  by  the  peers  of  his  kingdom,  by  which  John 
was  declared  to  have  forfeited  all  the  fiefs  which  he 
held  of  the  Crown  of  France.  By  way  of  carrying  out 
this  sentence,  Philip  conquered,  with  very  little  trouble, 
all  continental  Normandy  and  the  other  possessions  of 
John  in  Northern  Gaul.  But  the  Duchy  of  Aquitairu 
and  the  Norman  Islands  were  still  kept  by  the  Kings 
of  England.  From  this  time  England  became  the 
most  important  part  of  the  King  of  England's  domi- 
nions, and  all  the  natives  of  England,  whether  of  Old- 
English  or  of  Norman  descent,  began  to  draw  together 
as  countrymen  to  withstand  the  strangers  whom  the 
Ang°vin  Kings  were  constantly  bringing  into  the  land 


IJ$2  TIIF.  SWABIAN  EMPERORS.  [CHAP 

Meanwhile  John  contrived  to  quarrel  both  with  Pope 
Innocent  and  with  his  own  subjects:  and  in  1214 
Philip  won  the  battle  of  Bouvines  m  Flanders  over  the 
English  forces,  together  with  those  of  the  Emperor 
Otto,  who  was  John's  nephew,  being  the  son  of  his 
sister  Matilda.  In  this  battle  the  French  got  the 
better  of  three  Teutonic  nations,  Germans,  English, 
and  Flemings  all  together.  In  1216,  the  Barons  of 
England  who  had  revolted  against  John  offered  the 
crown  to  Lewis  the  eldest  son  of  Philip  of  France. 
He  came  over  to  England  ;  but  as  John  died  before 
long,  the  supporters  of  Lewis  gradually  left  him,  and 
Henry  the  Third,  the  young  son  of  John,  was  acknow- 
ledged King.  Two  things  strike  us  in  this  part  of  the 
story.  On  the  one  hand,  it  seems  strange  that  the 
Normans  in  Normandy,  who  had  had  such  long  wars 
with  the  French,  should  have  allowed  themselves  to 
be  conquered  by  Philip  almost  without  making  any 
resistance.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  strange  that 
the  Barons  of  England,  whether  we  call  them  Nor- 
mans or  Englishmen,  should  have  offered  the  crown  of 
England  to  the  eldest  son  of  the  King  of  the  French. 
The  truth  is  that  John  was  felt  to  be  really  neither  a 
Norman  Duke  nor  an  English  King,  and  men  most 
likely  thought  that,  if  they  were  to  have  a  foreign  ruler, 
Lewis  would  be  better  than  John. 

6.  Saint  Lewis. — After  the  death  of  Philip,  his 
son  Lewis  the  Eighth,  who  had  failed  to  get  the  crown 
of  England,  reigned  for  a  few  years  in  France,  from 
1223  to  1226.  Then  came  his  son  Lewis  the  Ninth, 
called  Saint  Lewis,  and  most  rightly  so  called,  for  he 
was  perhaps  the  best  King  that  ever  reigned,  unless  it 
were  our  own  Alfred.  The  only  evil  was  that  his  per- 
sonal goodness  helped  greatly  to  increase  the  power 
of  the  Crown,  and  so,  in  the  end,  to  make  the  Kings  of 
France  absolute  rulers.  And  in  the  like  sort  it  helped 
greatly  to  increase  the  power  of  France  among  other 
nations.  While  Saint  Lewis  reigned  in  France, 


XL]        INTERNAL  AFFAIRS  OF  ENGLAND.         i8j 

the  Third  reigned  in  England  from  1216   to    1272 

Henry  made  some  attempts  to  get  back  his  possessions 
in  France;  but  in  1259  peace  was  made,  by  which 
Henry  kept  nothing  except  his  possessions  in  the 
South.  In  Saint  Lewis's  time  also,  but  while  he  was 
still  young  and  under  the  rule  of  his  mother  Blanche 
of  Castile,  the  dominions  of  the  Counts  of  Toulouse. 
were  added  to  the  royal  possessions  by  a  treaty  made 
in  1229.  Thus  the  Kings  of  the  French,  instead  of 
being  cooped  up  in  Paris  and  Orleans,  as  they  had 
been  up  to  the  time  of  Philip  Augustus,  had  the  more 
part  of  their  kingdom  in  their  own  hands.  Their 
dominions  now  reached  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
and  they  had  havens  on  all  the  three  seas,  the  Medi- 
terranean, the  Ocean,  and  the  Channel.  And,  though 
Provence  and  the  other  great  fiefs  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Burgundy  were  not  joined  to  France  for  a  long  time 
to  come,  still  from  this  time  they  began  to  have  a  con- 
nexion with  France.  The  French  Kings  began  to 
meddle  with  their  affairs  in  a  manner  which  paved 
the  way  for  their  conquest  at  a  later  time.  Generally, 
just  as  the  German  Kingdom  was  getting  weaker,  and 
was  now  in  truth  splitting  to  pieces,  the  French  King- 
dom was  getting  stronger  and  more  united  ;  and  from 
this  time  France  was  always  reckoned  amongst  the 
foremost  powers  of  Europe. 

7.  The  Internal  Affairs  of  England. — The 
internal  and  consticutional  affairs  of  England  will  be 
spoken  of  more  at  large  in  the  special  history  of  Eng- 
land. But  a  few  words  must  be  given  to  them,  as 
they  are  closely  connected  with  the  general  course  of 
European  affairs.  The  thirteenth  century  was  a  time 
of  great  changes,  a  time,  so  to  speak,  of  beginnings 
and  endings,  throughout  the  world.  As  both  Empires 
practically  came  to  an  end,  as  the  Kingdom  of  France, 
in  anything  like  its  later  extent  and  importance,  may 
be  said  to  have  begun,  so  now  the  Constitution  oj 
England  began  to  put  on  the  shape  which  it  has  kept 


184  THE  SWABIAN  EMPERORS.  [CHAP 

ever  since.  Under  John  and  Henry  the  Third  we  se« 
how  the  fondness  of  the  Angevin  Kings  for  foreigners 
of  all  kinds  drove  the  natives  of  England,  whether  of 
English  or  Norman  descent,  to  join  together  against 
the  strangers.  The  whole  nation  joined  together  to 
force  King  John  in  1215  to  grant  the  Great  Charter, 
by  which  all  the  old  rights  and  good  laws  which  he 
had  broken  were  confirmed.  This  Great  Charter  the 
Kings  who  followed  had  to  confirm  over  and  over 
again,  because  they  were  always  trying  to  break  it ; 
and  it  has  been  the  groundwork  of  English  freedom 
ever  since.  So  again,  in  the  time  of  Henry  the  Third, 
the  King's  misgovernment  and  his  favour  to  foreigners 
again  drove  the  Barons  and  the  whole  people  to  rise 
against  him.  And,  though  the  Popes  again  took  the 
side  of  the  King  and  excommunicated  all  who  rose 
against  him,  yet  we  again  find  the  whole  English 
nation,  nobles,  clergy,  and  people,  acting  firmly  to- 
gether. In  this  war  against  Henry  the  Third  the 
great  leader  was  Simon  of  Montfort,  the  son  of 
another  Simon  of  whom  we  shall  hear  presently.  He 
was,  oddly  enough,  a  Frenchman  by  birth,  but  he  in- 
herited the  earldom  of  Leicester  through  his  mother ; 
and  when  he  came  to  England,  he  threw  in  his  lot 
with  his  new  country,  and  did  in  everything  as  a  good 
Englishman.  It  was  by  him  that  the  Great  Council 
of  the  Nation,  which  was  now  called  by  the  French 
name  of  Parliament,  was  made  to  take  the  form  which 
it  has  borne  ever  since.  Some  kind  of  National 
Assembly  was  found  in  every  part  of  Western  Europe. 
But  in  most  countries  the  Assembly  consisted  of 
Estates ;  that  is,  representatives  of  the  different  classes 
of  freemen  in  the  nation.  These,  in  most  countries, 
were  counted  as  three,  Nobles,  Clergy,  and  Commons, 
the  Commons  generally  being  only  the  citizens  of  the 
towns.  This  kind  of  constitution  was  set  up  in 
France  by  Philip  tfu  Fair,  the  grandson  of  Saint 
Lewis.  The  States  came  together  in  each  country  ta 


ti.l  THE  CONQUEST  OF  IRELAND.  185 

grant  money  to  the  King,  and  to  demand  such  changes 
in  the  laws  or  other  reforms  as  might  be  needed. 
But  in  France  the  States  never  met  regularly,  but  only 
when  it  suited  the  King's  purposes,  or  Avhen  he  could 
not  help  calling  them  together.  In  England,  on  the 
other  hand,  Parliaments  went  on  far  more  regularly, 
so  that  people  have  never  been  without  a  national 
Assembly  of  some  kind  from  the  very  beginning  of 
things  till  now.  And  in  England  the  Parliament  took 
the  particular  form  of  an  assembly  with  Two  Houses. 
The  Earls,  Bishops,  and  other  great  men,  grew  into  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  the  House  of  Commons  was  gradu- 
ally formed  out  of  the  representatives  of  the  people 
in  general.  First  of  all,  the  freeholders  of  each  county 
were  called  on  to  send  some  of  the  knights  of  that 
county  to  represent  them,  and  at  last,  when  Earl 
Simon  held  a  Parliament  in  1265,  he  called  on  the 
cities  and  boroughs  to  send  each  two  of  their  citizens  or 
burgesses.  Earl  Simon  was  killed  that  same  year  in 
the  battle  of  Evesham,  but  the  system  of  representation 
which  he  had  brought  in  was  before  long  firmly  estab- 
lished under  King  Edward  the  First. 

B.  The  Conquest  of  Ireland. — During  this 
time  many  things  happened  between  the  English 
Kings  and  their  vassals  the  Kings  of  Scots  and  Princes 
of  Wales,  which  will  be  better  told  in  the  History  of 
England.  But  it  must  be  mentioned  here  that  it  was 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Second  that  the  English  do- 
minion in  Ireland  began.  At  the  very  beginning  of 
his  reign,  in  1155,  King  Henry  got  a  bull — that  is,  a 
writing  sealed  with  the  Pope's  bulla  or  seal — from 
Pope  Hadrian  the  Fourth,  who  was  an  Englishman 
and  the  only  Englishman  that  ever  was  Pope,  giving 
him  leave  to  conquer  Ireland :  thus  had  the  Popes 
taken  upon  themselves  to  dispose  of  kingdoms.  But 
it  was  not  till  1169  that  some  nobles  and  other  private 
adventurers  went  over  into  Ireland  under  pretence  of 
helping  a  banished  Irish  king  called  Dermot  Twe 


186  THE  SWAB 7 AN  EMPERORS.  [CHAP 

years  afterwards  King  Henry  went  over  himself  to 
receive  the  homage  of  the  whole  country.  From  iha\ 
time  the  Kings  of  England  always  claimed  to  be  Lords 
of  Ireland,  and  the  city  of  Dublin  and  a  greater  or  less 
part  of  the  island  was  always  under  the  English  power. 
But  it  was  not  for  many  ages  that  English  Kings  really 
got  possession  of  all  Ireland,  and  cruel  wars  long  went 
on  between  the  English  settlers  and  the  native  Irish. 
9.  The  Loss  of  Jerusalem. — A  large  part  of 
the  history  of  this  time  might  come  under  the  general 
head  of  Crusades.  The  first  Crusades  or  Holy  Wars 
had  been  undertaken  to  win  back  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
from  the  infidels ;  but  after  a  while  both  the  name 
and  the  thing  began  to  be  greatly  abused,  and  Cru- 
sades were  preached  against  an)'  one  with  whom  the 
Popes  were  at  enmity.  The  First  Crusade,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  led  to  the  establishment  of  the 
Christian  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem  in  1099.  The  chief 
strength  of  the  kingdom  lay  in  the  two  orders  of 
military  monks,  the  Templars  and  the  Hospitallers  or 
Knights  of  Saint  John,  and  many  warriors  from  all 
parts  of  Christendom  went  to  serve  for  a  while  in  the 
Holy  Land  as  a  good  work.  Still  the  Kings  of  Jeru- 
salem had  much  ado  to  keep  their  little  kingdom  from 
the  attacks  of  the  neighbouring  Mahometan  powers, 
and  several  new  Crusades  had  to  be  made  to  help 
them,  some  of  which  were  led  by  the  greatest  princes 
in  Europe.  Thus  in  1147  the  Second  Crusade  was 
preached  by  Saint  Bernard,  one  of  the  holiest  men  of 
the  time,  and  who  is  called  the  last  of  the  Fathers  oj 
the  Church.  Conrad  King  of  the  Romans  and  Lewis 
the  Seventh,  King  of  the  French,  both  went  on  this 
Crusade,  but  they  were  not  able  to  do  any  great  tilings. 
And  there  soon  arose  a  power  in  Egypt  which  became 
more  dangerous  to  the  Christians  of  the  East  than 
any  of  the  other  Mahometan  powers  had  been.  We 
have  seen  there  had  been  for  some  time  a  separate 
line  of  Caliphs  in  Egypt ;  these  were  called  the  Fati 


«.]  THE  CRUSADES.  187 

mitts,  as  they  profess  to  be  the  descendants  of  Ali  and 
Fatima,  the  daughter  of  Mahomet.  But  in  1171  their 
power  was  put  down  by  Joseph  surnamed  Saladin,  who 
brought  back  Egypt  under  the  spiritual  power  of  the 
Caliph  of  Bagdad,  much  as  if  the  Eastern  Church  had 
been  brought  under  the  power  of  the  Bishops  of 
Rome.  Saladin  became  the  greatest  Mahometan 
prince  of  his  time,  and  in  1187  he  took  Jerusalem  and 
drove  the  Christians  out  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
kingdom.  Thus  far  all  the  Crusades  since  the  First 
had  been  waged  for  the  purpose  of  defending  the 
Christian  possession  of  Jerusalem.  We  have  now 
again  to  come  to  Crusades  which  were  waged,  as  the 
First  had  been,  to  win  back  the  Holy  City  from  the 
Infidels,  as  well  as  to  save  the  small  fragment  of  the 
kingdom  which  was  left. 

10.  The  Later  Crusades  in  Palestine. — The 
loss  of  Jerusalem  roused  the  spirit  of  all  Western 
Christendom.  King  Henry  of  England  took  the 
cross ;  but  he  died  two  years  later,  without  ever  setting 
out  for  the  Holy  Land.  But  in  1189  the  Emperor 
Frederick  set  out  by  land,  but  was  drowned  on  the 
way;  and  in  1190  Philip  King  of  the  French  and  his 
great  vassal  Richard,  the  new  King  of  the  English, 
went  to  the  Holy  Land  by  sea.  King  Richard  did 
many  great  exploits  ;  but  the  princes  quarrelled  among 
themselves,  so  that  Jerusalem  was  not  won  back  ;  but 
some  parts  of  Palestine  were  still  left  to  the  Christians, 
and  they  were  allowed  to  make  pilgrimages  to  Jeru- 
salem. Of  the  Third  Crusade  we  shall  have  to  speak 
by  itself,  as  it  did  nothing  for  the  Holy  Land  at  all. 
But  in  1228  the  Emperor  Frederick  the  Second,  who 
claimed  to  be  King  of  Jerusalem  in  right  of  his  wife, 
notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  Pope  Gregory  the. 
Ninth,  really  went  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  won  Jeru- 
salem by  a  treaty  with  the  Egyptian  Sultan  Kamel,  and 
was  crowned  King  there.  He  was  the  last  Christian 
King  who  really  reigned  at  Jerusalem.  For  in  1 244 


iSS  THE  SWABIAN  EMPERORS.  [CHA?. 

the  Holy  City  was  again  lost  by  the  Christians,  being 
taken  by  the  Mahometan  C/iorasmians,  and  it  has 
never  been  won  back  again.  The  Popes,  instead  of 
helping  the  Emperor  to  win  back  his  kingdom,  were 
always  excommunicating  him  and  preaching  Crusades 
against  him.  The  Christians  however  still  kept  some 
small  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  in  1248  Saint  Lewis, 
the  King  of  the  French,  set  out  on  a  Crusade  ;  but, 
instead  of  going  straight  to  Palestine,  he  first  attacked 
Egypt,  as  being  the  best  way  of  winning  the  Holy  Land. 
But  he  was  taken  prisoner  in  Egypt;  and,  though  he 
did  afterwards  reach  Palestine,  yet  he  could  not  win 
back  Jerusalem.  At  last  he  came  back  to  France  in 
1254,  having  done  little  or  nothing  for  the  common 
cause,  but  having  shown  his  own  courage  and  good- 
ness in  a  wonderful  way.  In  1270  he  set  out  on 
another  Cnisade  ;  but  this  time  he  began  by  besieging 
7'iinis,  and  died  there.  In  1270  Edward  the  son  of 
King  Henry  of  England,  afterwards  the  great  King 
Edward  the  First,  went  on  another  Crusade,  and  did 
something  to  stop  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Christians 
in  Palestine,  though  even  he  could  not  win  back  Jeru- 
salem. At  last,  in  1291,  Acre,  the  last  town  which  the 
Christians  held  in  the  Holy  Land,  was  taken  by  the 
Mahometans,  and  the  Christian  Kingdom  of  Jeru- 
salem came  altogether  to  an  end.  But  the  Emperors 
called  themselves  Kings  of  Jerusalem  as  well  as  of 
Germany,  and  the  same  vain  title  has  been  borne  and 
disputed  about  by  several  other  European  sovereigns. 
ii.  The  Latin  Conquest  of  Constantinople. 
— No  one  perhaps  would  have  expected  that  the 
Eastern  Empire,  the  great  bulwark  of  Christendom 
against  the  Saracens  and  Turks,  and  which  the  first 
Crusaders  had  professed  to  go  forth  to  defend,  would 
be  actually  overthrown  by  a  crusading  army.  We 
have  seen  that  the  Komnenian  Emperors,  following  in 
the  wake  of  the  first  Crusaders,  were  able  to  win  back 
t  large  part  of  the  Byzantine  dominions  in  Asia.  Th« 


XL]  LATIN  CONQUEST  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  iSf 

two  Emperors  who  reigned  after  Alexios,y^#  and 
Manuel,  were  both  great  warriors.  John,  who  reigned 
from  mS  to  1143,  did  much  really  to  restore  the 
strength  of  the  Empire ;  but  Manuel,  who  reigned 
from  1143  to  1180,  was  rather  a  bold  knight-errant 
than  either  a  good  ruler  or  a  great  general.  He  had 
to  contend  with  many  enemies  both  in  Europe  and  in 
Asia.  In  his  time  Greece  was  several  times  ravaged 
by  the  fleets  of  the  Kings  of  Sicily ;  he  had  to  wage 
wars  with  Hungary,  and  at  last  he  was  defeated  in  a 
great  battle  against  the  Turks  in  1176.  After  his  time 
the  Eastern  Empire  again  began  to  decline  ;  there 
were  many  internal  revol  ution  s  ;  Emperors  were  set  up 
and  put  down  ;  the  Bulgarians  revolted,  and  a  separate 
Emperor  set  himself  up  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus.  At  last, 
in  1 201,  several  Western  princes,  among  the  chief  of 
whom  were  Baldwin  Count  of  Flanders  and  Boniface. 
Marquess  of  Montferrat  in  Italy,  were  setting  out  on  a 
Crusade,  and  they  came  to  Venice  to  ask  for  ships  to 
take  them  to  the  Holy  Land.  Venice,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, had  never  been  part  of  the  Western 
Empire,  but  had  always  kept  on  its  nominal  allegiance 
to  the  Emperors  of  the  East,  till  it  had  gradually  be- 
come quite  independent,  as  it  was  now.  The  three 
Italian  cities,  Venice,  Genoa,  and  Pisa,  were  now  the 
greatest  naval  powers  in  Europe.  The  Doge  or  Dukt 
01  Venice,  Henry  Dandolo,  agreed  to  let  the  Crusaders 
have  ships  and  to  go  with  them  himself;  only  the 
Crusaders  were  to  conquer  for  the  Venetians  the  town 
of  Zara  in  Dalmatia,  to  which  they  laid  claim.  Pope 
Innocent  protested  against  this,  as  being  no  part  of  the 
business  of  a  Crusade.  Yet  they  not  only  took  Zara, 
but  agreed  to  help  Alexios  Angelas,  the  son  of  an  Em 
peror  of  the  East  who  had  been  deposed,  in  getting 
back  the  Empire.  This  they  actually  did  in  1203. 
But,  as  the  Romans  or  Greeks  (whichever  we  are  to 
call  them)  of  Constantinople  presently  revolted, 
and  slew  the  Emperors  who  had  been  put  in  by  the 


190  THE  SIVABIJN  EMPERORS.  [CHA» 

Crusaders,  the  Crusaders  in  1204  again  took  the 
city  ;  and  the  Roman  Empire  of  the  East  may  now  be 
said  to  have  come  to  an  end. 

12.  The  Later  Greek  Empire.— When  the 
Crusaders  had  taken  Constantinople,  they  went  on  to 
deal  with  the  whole  Eastern  Empire  as  their  own. 
They  set  up  Count  Baldwin  as  Emperor  of  Constanti- 
nople, and  they  divided  among  themselves  as  much  oi 
the  Empire  as  they  could  get  This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  what  was  called  the  Latin  Empire  of  Constan- 
tinople :  the  word  Latin  being  now  often  used,  as 
opposed  to  Greek,  to  mean  all  those  who  admitted  the 
supremacy  of  the  Roman  Church  and  who  used  Latin 
as  their  religious  and  official  language.  Among  the 
Latin  powers  which  now  won  settlements  in  the 
East,  the  Venetians  got  possession  of  many  of  the 
islands  and  important  points  of  the  coast,  which 
was  the  beginning  of  their  great  Eastern  dominion. 
Some  of  the  Venetian  and  other  Latin  possessions 
were  never  won  back  by  the  Greeks,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Latins  were  far  from  conquering  the  whole 
Empire.  The  Greeks  maintained  their  independence 
in  Epeiros  and  at  Nikaia  and  Trapezous  or  Trebizond 
in  Asia ;  in  both  these  latter  cities  Greek  princes 
reigned  with  the  title  of  Emperor.  Thus  the  Eastern 
Empire  was  cut  up  into  a  crowd  of  small  principali- 
ties, Greek  and  Frank  (the  meaning  of  this  last  word 
in  the  East  has  already  been  explained),  Despots  of 
Epeiros,  Dukes  of  Athens,  Princes  of  Achaia,  and 
what  not ;  the  Latin  Emperors  at  Constantinople 
,  being  supposed  to  be  lords  over  all  the  Frank  settlers. 
But,  as  the  Emperors  who  reigned  at  Nikaia,  Theoaore 
Laskares  and  John  Vatatzes,  were  very  wise  and  good 
princes,  the  Empire  of  Nikaia,  which  professed  to  be 
the  true  continuation  of  the  Roman  Empire  at  Con- 
stantinople, grew  and  flourished;  and  in  1261  the 
Emperor  M;chacl Palaiologos  won  back  Constantinople, 
and  the  Empire  of  the  East  in  some  sort  began  agaiiv 


XL]     CRUSADES  AGAINST  THE  ALBIGENSES.  i9j 

But  it  never  won  back  its  old  power,  for,  besides  the 
provinces  which  were  held  by  the  Mahometans  and 
the  new  dominions  of  the  Venetians,  some  of  the 
Greek  and  Frank  princes  still  went  on  reigning,  and 
were  independent  of  the  Greek  Emperor  at  Constan- 
tinople. The  Empire  of  Trebizond  especially  outlived 
the  restored  Empire  of  Constantinople.  In  truth  this 
restored  Empire  of  Constantinople  was  little  more 
than  the  most  powerful  of  several  Greek  states  which 
went  on  from  this  time  till  they  were  all  swallowed  up 
by  the  Turks.  Still  the  Emperors  of  Constantinople 
always  called  themselves  Emperors  of  the  Romans,  and 
professed  to  continue  the  old  Roman  succession. 
From  this  time  the  Eastern  Empire  became  more 
strictly  hereditary  than  it  had  been  of  old,  and  the 
crown  remained  with  very  little  interruption  in  the 
family  of  Palaiologos,  till  the  Empire  was  finally 
destroyed  by  the  Ottoman  Turks. 

13.  Crusades  against  the  Albigenses. — We 
have  just  seen  how  a  Crusade,  which  was  meant  to  be 
a  war  for  the  defence  of  Christendom  against  the 
unbelievers,  could  be  turned  into  an  attack  made  by 
one  body  of  Christians  against  another.  But  when  the 
Fourth  Crusade  was  turned  about  into  an  attack  on 
Zara  and  Constantinople,  Pope  Innocent  at  least  did 
what  he  could  to  hinder  such  a  falling  away  from  the 
original  design  of  a  Crusade.  Yet,  before  long,  Inno- 
cent himself  caused  a  Crusade  to  be  preached,  no 
longer  against  Mahometans,  but  against  Christians  who 
were  looked  on  as  heretics.  In  the  South  of  Gaul, 
both  in  those  parts  which  were  fiefs  of  the  King  of 
the  French  and  in  those  which  were  held  of  the  Em- 
perors as  Kings  of  Burgundy,  many  men  had  fallen 
away  into  doctrines  which  both  the  Eastern  and  the 
Western  Churches  condemned.  Those  who  held 
these  doctrines  were  commonly  called  Albigenses, 
from  the  city  of  Albi.  The  chief  princes  in  those 
parts  were  the  Counts  of  Toulouse  and  the '  Counts  <yf 


102  THE  SWAB  I  AN  EMPERORS.  [cn\f 

Provetice :  each  of  them  held  fiefs  both  of  the  Emperoi 
and  of  the  King  of  the  French  •  but  the  County  of 
Toulouse  itself  was  a  fief  of  France,  while  the  County 
of  Provence  was  of  course  a  fief  of  the  Empire.  The 
Counts  of  Provence  at  this  time  were  of  the  house  of 
the  Kings  of  Aragon.  In  1 208  a  Crusade  was  preached 
against  Raymond  Count  of  Toiilouse,  which  was  car- 
ried on  at  first  by  Simon  of  Montfori,  the  father  of 
the  Simon  who  was  so  famous  in  English  history,  and 
afterwards  by  Lewis  the  Eighth,  King  of  the  French. 
Simon  even  defeated  Peter  King  of  Aragon  in  a  great 
battle,  and  obtained  possession  of  Toulouse.  It  looked 
at  one  time  as  if  the  house  of  Montfort  were  going 
to  be  established  as  sovereigns  in  the  South  of  Gaul ; 
but  the  end  of  the  matter  was  that  the  heresy  of  the 
Albigenses  was  put  down  by  cruel  persecutions,  and 
that  in  1229  the  county  of  Toulouse  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  incorporated  with  the  Kingdom  of  France. 

14.  Crusades  against  Sicily. — In  this  way  the 
Crusades,  which  had  first  been  preached  only  against 
the  infidels,  next  began  to  be  preached  against  heretics. 
The  next  stage  was  to  preach  them  against  any  one 
who  was  an  enemy  of  the  Pope.  Thus  Crusades  were 
preached  against  the  Emperor  Frederick,  and,  after  his 
death,  they  were  preached  against  his  son  Manfred 
King  of  Sicily,  who  began  to  reign  in  1258.  Manfred 
was  a  wise  and  brave  King,  and  he  greatly  helped  the 
Ghihelins  in  other  parts  of  Italy  ;  things  almost  looked 
as  if  a  Kingdom  of  all  Italy  was  about  to  arise  in 
the  House  of  Swabia.  But  the  Popes  were  of  course 
the  enemies  of  Manfred.  Even  while  King  Conrad 
was  alive,  Pope  Innocent  the  Fourth  had  in  1253  pro- 
fessed to  give  the  crown  of  Sicily  to  Edmund  the  son 
of  our  King  Henry  the  Third.  But  nothing  came  of 
that:  so  in  1262  Pope  Urban  the  Fourth  offered  the 
crown  to  Charles  Count  of  Anjou,  the  brother  of  Saint 
Lewis,  who  was  also  Count  of  Provence  in  right  of 
hii,  wife.  Charles  got  together  an  army  of  French 


XL]          THE  CRUSADES  IN  THE  NORTH.  193 

Crusaderfe,  and  in  1266  he  overthrew  and  slew  Manfred 
in  battle.  He  then  took  the  kingdom  himself ;  and 
when,  two  years  afterwards,  young  Conradin,  the 
nephew  of  Manfred,  tried  to  win  back  the  crown,  he 
was  defeated  in  battle,  and  was  beheaded  by  order  of 
Charles.  Charles  was  thus  King  of  Sicily,  both  of  the 
island  and  of  the  mainland;  but  in  1282  the  island 
of  Sicily  revolted  against  the  oppression  of  him  and 
his  Frenchmen,  and  the  Sicilians  chose  as  their  King 
another  King  Peter  of  Aragon,  who  had  married  the 
daughter  of  Manfred.  A  long  war  followed ;  the 
end  of  which  was  that  Charles's  descendants  kept  the 
kingdom  on  the  mainland,  which  was  commonly  called 
the  Kingdom  of  Naples,  while  the  island  of  Sicily 
became  a  separate  kingdom  in  the  House  of  Aragon. 
But  in  both  kingdoms  the  Kings  called  themselves 
Kings  of  Sicily,  so  that  when  the  island  and  the  main- 
land were  joined  again  long  afterwards,  the  kingdom 
was  called  the  Kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies. 

15.  Crusades  in  the  North  of  Europe. — 
Besides  the  real  Crusades  against  the  Mahometans 
and  what  we  may  call  the  mock  Crusades  against 
heretics  and  other  enemies  of  the  Popes,  there  were 
also,  as  we  have  already  seen,  Crusades  against  the 
heathens  in  the  North  of  Europe.  The  people  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Baltic,  in  Prussia,  Lithuania,  Livonia, 
and  Esthonia,  were  still  idolaters.  Poland\&&  become 
Christian  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  and  the 
Polish  Dukes  and  Kings  had  much  trouble  with  their 
heathen  neighbours.  Both  Poland  and  Lithuania 
were  much  smaller  states  now  than  they  became  after- 
wards. But  ^Russia  at  this  time  was  a  much  greater 
state,  and  came  much  further  to  the  west,  than  it  did 
again  till  quite  late  times,  for  the  Poles  and  Lithuanians 
made  large  conquests  at  the  expense  of  Russia.  Both 
Russia  and  Poland  were  at  this  time  often  divided  be- 
tween several  princes  ;  and  one  or  two  of  the  great 
cities,  especially  the  famous  Novgorod  in  the  north. 


194  THE  SWAB  I  AN  EMPERORS.  [CHAF 

were  able  to  make  themselves  into  republics.  But 
both  Poland  and  Russia  were  almost  wholly  cut  of? 
from  the  sea  by  their  heathen  neighbours,  and  at  one 
time  it  seemed  as  if  the  chief  power  in  those  parts 
was  likely  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  Denmark.  For  seve- 
ral of  the  Danish  Kings,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  made  large  conquests  on  the  southern  and 
eastern  shores  of  the  Baltic.  But  in  the  reign  of 
Frederick  the  Second  great  changes  were  made  in  those 
parts  by  the  establishment  of  the  Teutonic  KnigJits. 
They  were  first  invited  by  some  of  the  Polish  princes 
to  help  them  against  the  heathen  Prussians.  Under 
their  Grand  Master  Hermann  of  Salza,  they  were 
commissioned  by  the  Emperor  Frederick  and  by  Pope 
Gregory  the  Ninth,  who  preached  a  Crusade  against 
the  Prussians,  to  settle  themselves  in  those  parts  about 
1230.  They  presently  conquered  Prussia  and  East- 
ern Pomerania;  and  in  1237  another  order,  called  the 
Knights  of  the  Sword,  who  were  established  in  Livonia, 
were  joined  with  the  Teutonic  Knights.  The  territo- 
ries of  the  Order  now  quite  cut  off  Poland,  Lithuania, 
and  Russia  from  the  Baltic,  and  hindered  any  further 
advance  of  Denmark  in  those  parts.  The  wars  of  the 
Knights  in  those  lands  were  looked  on  as  holy  wars, 
and  many  men  came  from  other  parts  of  Europe  to 
join  them  in  fighting  against  the  heathens,  just  as  they 
had  done  against  the  Saracens  in  the  East.  But  the 
government  of  an  order  can  never  be  a  really  good 
government,  and  the  Knights  became  quite  as  danger- 
ous neighbours  to  the  Poles,  whom  they  had  at  first 
come  to  help,  as  they  were  to  the  Prussians  and  other 
heathens  whom  they  had  come  to  fight  against 

16.  Advance  of  the  Christians  in  Spain. — 
While  Crusades  against  heathens  and  Mahometans 
were  thus  going  on  in  the  North  and  East,  the  whole 
history  of  Spain  might  be  called  one  long  Crusade  on 
the  part  of  the  Christians  who  were  winning  back  the 
land,  step  by  step,  from  the  Saracens  and  Moors. 


XI.]  THE  SPANISH  KINGDOMS.  igj  . 

The  advance  of  the  Christians  was  still  checked  by 
the  foundation  of  new  Mahometan  dynasties,  which 
passed  over  from  Africa  into  Spain.  As  the  Almora- 
•vides  passed  over  in  the  eleventh  century,  so  the 
Almohades,  who  were  much  like  a  kind  of  Mahometan 
Crusaders,  passed  over  in  the  twelfth.  Alfonso  tht 
Eighth,  who,  as  being  the  chief  prince  in  Spain,  called 
himself  Emperor,  withstood  them  for  a  while  ;  but, 
after  his  death  in  1159,  Castile  and  Leon  were  again 
divided,  and  the  Almohades  were  able  again  largely 
to  extend  the  Mahometan  territories.  In  1195  Jacob, 
the  Caliph  of  the  Almohades,  at  the  head  of  a  kind 
of  general  Mahometan  Crusade,  won  the  great  battle 
of  Alarcos  over  Alfonso  of  Castile,  the  grandson  of  the 
Emperor  Alfonso ;  and  as  the  different  Spanish  Kings 
were  constantly  quarrelling  between  themselves,  it 
almost  seemed  as  if  the  Mahometans  were  going  again 
t©  get  the  upper  hand.  But,  when  the  Caliph  Jacob 
was  dead  and  the  Christians  began  to  join  together 
again,  the  Almohade  prince  Mahomet  was  utterly  de- 
feated in  1 2 1 2  at  the  battle  of  Tolosa  ;  and  from  that 
time  the  Mahometan  power  in  Spain  steadily  went 
down.  Ferdinand  the  Third,  called  Saint  Ferdinand, 
who  reigned  over  Castile  from  1217  to  1252,  and  who 
in  1230  finally  united  the  kingdoms  of  Castile  and 
Leon,  won  back  a  large  territory,  including  the  great 
cities  of  Seville  and  Cordova.  The  Kings  of  Portugal 
and  Aragon  also  were  pressing  their  conquests  in  the 
West  and  East  of  the  peninsula.  The  most  famous 
of  the  Kings  of  Aragon  \\zsjames  the  Conqueror,  who 
reigned  from  1213  to  1276.  At  last  nothing  was  left 
of  the  Mahometan  power  in  Spain  save  only  the 
Kingdom  of  Granada  in  the  South,  which  began  in 
1237,  and  which,  having  a  good  barrier  of  mountains, 
lasted  much  longer  than  any  one  would  have  looked 
for.  From  this  time  there  were  five  kingdoms  in 
Spain,  Castile,  Aragon,  Portugal,  Navarre,  and  Gra- 
nada. Of  these  Castile  was  the  greatest  and  Navarre 


196  THE  SWABIAN  EMPERORS.  [CHAF 

(the  smallest :  but,  as  both  Castile  and  Portugal  were 
chiefly  employed  with  their  wars  with  the  Mahometans. 
Aragon  was  the  Spanish  kingdom  which  had  most  to 
.do  with  the  general  affairs  of  Europe,  as  we  have  seen 
when  speaking  of  the  history  of  Sicily  and  Southern 
Gaul. 

17.  The  Invasions  of  the  Moguls. — While 
Christians  and  Mahometans  were  thus  fighting  in 
various  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia,  a  new  power,  a 
Turanian  power,  which  was  neither  Christian  nor 
Mahometan,  threatened  to  overwhelm  both  alike. 
These  were  the  Moguls,  commonly  known  in  Europe 
as  Tartars,  who  in  the  thirteenth  century  burst  forth 
fr.om  the  unknown  lands  of  Asia,  beyond  either  the 
Saracens  or  the  Turks,  much  as  Attila  and  his  Huns 
had  burst  forth  eight  hundred  years  before.  They 
began  to  rise  to  power  under  Temujin  or  Jenghiz  Khan, 
who  reigned  from  1206  to  1227.  During  the  whole 
of  the  century  he  and  his  descendants  went  on  con- 
quering and  destroying  through  the  greater  part  of 
Europe  and  Asia.  In  some  parts  they  only  ravaged, 
and  ravaged  more  croielly  than  either  the  Saracens  or 
the  Turks  had  ever  done  ;  in  others  they  founded  last- 
ing dynasties.  In  religion  they  seem  to  have  been  a 
kind  of  Deists,  acknowledging  one  God,  but  not  ac- 
cepting either  the  Christian  or  the  Mahometan  law. 
But  all  religions,  Christian,  Mahometan,  and  heathen, 
were  freely  tolerated  among  them,  and  in  the  end  most 
of  them  became  Mahometans.  In  Europe  Batou 
Khan  pressed  all  through  Russia,  Poland,  and  Hun- 
gary, as  far  as  the  borders  of  Germany.  The  furthest 
point  which  they  reached  to  the  west  was  Lignitz  in 
Silesia,  the  border  province  of  Poland  and  Bohemia, 
which  had  been  Polish,  but  which  now  was  Bohemian. 
They  there,  in  1241,  gained  a  battle  over  the  Teutonic 
Knights  and  all  the  princes  of  those  parts.  AU 
Europe  was  naturally  frightened  at  such  an  invasion, 
and  the  Emperor  Frederick  tried  to  stir  up  all  the 


xi.]  INVASIONS  OF  THE  MOGULS.  iy\ 

other  Kings  to  a  Crusade  against  these  enemies,  who 
were  worse  than  Saracens  or  Prussians.  But  the 
Moguls  pressed  no  further  westwards  ;  they  ravaged 
Hungary  and  the  countries  to  the  north  of  it,  but  the 
only  lasting  dynasty  which  they  set  up  in  Europe  was 
at  Kasan  on  the  Volga,  whence  they  held  Russia  in  their 
dependence.  Thus  Russia,  which  had  at  one  time 
seemed  likely  to  become  an  important  power  in 
Europe,  was  altogether  thrust  back  for  a  long  time. 
The  Lithuanians  conquered  all  the  western  provinces, 
even  the  old  capital  of  Kiev,  and  the  Russian  Dukes, 
first  of  Vladimir  and  then  of  Moscow,  were  looked  on 
as  mere  subjects  of  the  Mogul  Khans.  In  Asia,  be- 
sides conquests  in  China  and  other  parts  which  do 
not  concern  us,  the  Moguls  overthrew  most  of  the 
existing  powers,  and  founded  a  lasting  dynasty  in 
Persia.  The  Chorasmians,  from  the  lands  east  of  the 
Caspian,  flying  before  them,  overthrew,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  restored  Christian  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem.  In  1258 
Holagou,  another  grandson  of  Jenghiz,  took  Bagdad, 
and  put  an  end  to  the  Abbasside  Caliphate,  though 
a  line  of  Caliphs  who  professed  to  be  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Abbassides  went  on  in  Egypt,  but  without 
any  temporal  power.  The  power  of  the  Seljuk  Turks 
was  also  quite  broken  up,  and  the  Greek  Emperors  at 
Nikaia  were  greatly  frightened,  though  in  the  end  the 
invasion  of  the  Moguls  helped  the  Eastern  Empire  to 
last  a  little  longer,  by  destroying  the  power  of  the 
Seljuks.  But  it  was  only  for  a  little  while,  because 
the  overthrow  of  the  Seljuk  Turks  made  a  way  for 
the  growth  of  the  far  more  famous  Turkish  power  of 
the  Ottomans,  whose  beginning  came  a  little  later  than 
the  time  which  we  have,  now  reached. 

1 8.  Summary. — Thus  we  see  that  the  time  of 
the  Swabian  Emperors  was  a  time  of  still  greater 
changes  than  that  of  the  Franconian  Emperors.  In 
their  time  much  was  done  towards  bringing  the 
rarious  powers  of  Europe  into  something  like  th< 


198  THE  SWABIAN  EMPERORS.  [CHA» 

btafc  in  which  they  are  now.  The  power  of  the  Westerc 
Empire  came  pretty  well  to  an  end,  and  Germany  and 
Italy  began  to  be  collections  of  separate  states,  inde 
pendent  or  nearly  so,  as  they  have  been  ever  since 
till  quite  lately.  The  Eastern  Empire  was  broken  up  ; 
the  greatness  of  Venice  began  ;  the  Caliphate  perished, 
and  the  Crusades  came  to  an  end.  But,  while  Chris- 
tendom lost  in  the  East,  it  gained  in  the  West  by  the 
great  advances  of  the  Christians  in  Spain.  Castile 
now  takes  the  first  place  in  the  Spanish  peninsula. 
In  the  like  sort  France  is  now  fully  established  as  the 
leading  power  of  Gaul.  In  England  Normans  and 
English  are  fully  reconciled  ;  the  Angevin  Kings,  by 
the  loss  of  the  more  part  of  their  foreign  dominions, 
are  driven  to  become  national  sovereigns,  and  that 
parliamentary  constitution  is  established  which  has 
lasted  ever  since.  The  north  of  Europe  was  further 
from  putting  on  its  present  form  than  the  west ;  but 
the  establishment  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  the  check 
given  to  the  power  of  Denmark,  the  extension  of 
Lithuania,  and  the  subjection  of  Russia  to  the  Moguls 
are  all  events  which  had  an  important  effect  on  later 
times.  This  was  also  a  time  of  great  intellectual  pro- 
gress. Universities  began  to  arise,  among  which  Paris 
and  Oxford  were  two  of  the  most  famous  north  of  the 
Alps.  In  England  there  were  Latin  Historians  and 
other  writers,  such  as  William  of  Malmes bury,  John  of 
Salisbury,  and  Matthew  Paris,  and  the  great  Friar 
Roger  Bacon,  who  forestalled  many  of  the  inventions 
of  later  times.  In  France  prose  writing  began  with 
Villehardouin,  who  wrote  an  account  of  the  taking  of 
Constantinople.  Italian  literature  began  under  Fred- 
erick the  Second,  and  in  Germany  this  was  the  time  of 
the  Minnesingers  or  love-poets.  The  pointed  or  Gothic 
style  of  architecture  also  began  to  come  into  use  in 
the  last  years  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  flourished 
greatly  in  the  thirteenth.  Altogether  this  was,  both  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  a  time  when  old  systems  were  falling 


XII,  j  SUMMARY.  190 

and  new  ones  were  rising,  and  in  most  parts  we  may 
see  the  beginnings  of  the  state  of  things  which  we  see 
now. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  DECLINE   OF  THE    EMPIRE. 

Decay  of  the  Empire;  the  great  Interregnum  (i)  — double 
election  of  Richard  and  Alfonso  (i) — election  of  Rudolf ; 
his  grant  of  Austria  to  his  son  (2) — reigns  of  Adolf 
and  Albert  (2) — reign  of  Henry  the  Seventh;  his 
career  in  Italy  (2) — history  of  John  of  Bohemia  (2) — 
reigns  of  Charles  the  Fourth,  Wenceslaus,  and  Sieg- 
inund(ji] — reigns  of  Albert  the  Second  and  Frederick  the 
Third  (2) —  new  position  of  the  Empire  ;  its  connexion 
•with  the  House  of  Austria  (2) — papacy  of  Gregory 
the  Tenth  ;  of  Boniface  the  Eighth  (3} — the  Avignon 
Popes;  suppression  of  the  Templars  (3)— the  Great 
Schism  ($)—-the-  reforming  Councils,  Pisa,  Constanz, 
and  Basel  (4) — Councils  of  Ferrara  and  Florence ;  re- 
conciliation with  the  Eastern  Church  (4) — intellectual 
pre-eminence  of  Italy  (5) — study  of  the  Roman  Law; 
revival  of  classical  learning  (5) — invention  of  print- 
ing and  gunpowder  (5) — growth  of  the  tyrants  in 
Italy ;  the  Visconti  at  Milan  (6) — constitutions  of 
Venice,  Genoa,  and  Florence  (6) — revolution  of  Rienzi 
at  Rome  (7) — return  of  the  Popes;  their  temporal 
powir  (7) — the  Two  Sicilies ;  rivalry  of  the  Houses  of 
Anjou  and  Aragon  (8) — dealings  of  England  with 
Wales  and  Scotland  (9) — the  Hundred  Years'  War  be- 
tween France  and  England  (10) — claim  of  Edward  the 
Third  to  the  crown  of  France  ;  victories  of  the  English 
do) — Peace  of  Bretigny ;  independence  and  loss  of 
Aquitaine  (10) — wars  of  Henry  the  Fifth;  Treaty  of 
Troyes  (10) — exploits  of  Joan  of  Arc;  French  con- 
quest of  Aquitaine  (10) — growth  of  France;  annex- 
ations in  the  Kingdom  of  Burgundy ;  defeat  of  the 
French  at  Courtray  (n) — beginning  of  the  Swiss 
League;  the  three  Forest  Cantons ;  battle  of  Morgartett 


«oo  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.        [CHAI 

(12) — the  eight  Canttms  ;  battlt  of  Sempach  (12) — re- 
lations of  the  League  to  the  Empire,  France,  ana 
Austria  (12) — beginning  of  the  Valois  Dukes  of  Bur 
gundy;  acquisition  of  Flanders  (13) — reigns  of  J oh* 
the  Fearless  and  Philip  tfie  Good;  advance  of  tin 
Burgitndian  power  within  the  Empire  (13) — reign  oj 
Charles  the  Bold;  his  rivalry  with  Lewis  the  Eleventh 
(13) — his  schemes  and  conquests;  his  war  with  the 
Confederates ;  battles  of  Grandson,  Moral,  and  Nancy 
(13) — effects  of  the  Burgundian  War  on  the  Confede- 
rates (13) — the  Greek  Empire  of  Constantinople;  its 
advance  and  decline  (14) — rise  of  the  Ottoman  Turks ; 
tkfir  conquests  in  Asia  (14) — their  advance  in  Europe ; 
institution  of  the  Janissaries  (14) — rise  of  Timour ; 
he  defeats  Bajazet  at  Angora  (15) — reign  of  Mahomet 
the  Second;  fall  of  Constantinople  (16) — conquest  of 
Greece  and  Trebizond;  taking  of  Otranto;  death  of 
Mahomet  (16) — civil  war  in  Castile  ;  battle  of  N ajar  a 
(17) — wars  of  Aragon  with  Provence  and  France  (17) 
— maritime  discoveries  and  conquests  of  the  Portuguese 
(17) — union  of  Castile  aud  Aragon;  conquest  of  Gra- 
nada; beginning  of  the  greatness  of  Spain  (17) — state  of 
the  Scandinavian  Kingdoms;  Union  of  Calmar  (18) 
—  the  House  of  Oldenburg  in  Denmark;  affairs  of 
Sleswick  and  Holstein  (18)—  conversion  of  Lithuania; 
its  union  with  Poland;  partition  of  Prussia  (19) — 
deliverance  of  Russia  from  the  Moguls  (19) — the  An~ 
gevin  Kings  in  Hungary;  reign  of  Siegmund;  his  de- 
feat at  Nikopolis  (20) — exploits  of  Huniades ;  defeat 
of  Wladislaus  at  Varna  (20) — reign  of  Matthias  Cor- 
vinus ;  designs  of  Austria  on  Hungary  (20)-  ^rowth 
of  Universities  (21) — writers  of  history  and  poetry 
(21)— -final  triumph  of  the  English  language  (21)— 
theology  and  philosophy  (21) — levelling  doctrines 
taught;  condition  of  the  villains  (21) — use  of  in- 
fantry in  war  (21) — state  of  architecture  (21) — Sum- 
mary (22). 

i.  The  Great  Interregnum. — After  the  death 
of  Frederick  the  Second  the  power  and  dignity  of  the 
Western  Empire  greatly  declined  Italy  now  began 
quite  to  fall  away.  Many  of  the  Kings  who  were 
chusen  in  Germany  never  went  to  Rome  to  be  crowned 


XII.]  THE  GREAT  INTERREGNUM.  2o\ 

Emperors  at  all,  and  those  who  did  so,  though  their 
passing  through  the  country  always  made  some  changes 
at  the  time.,  could  not  keep  any  lasting  hold  on  the 
Italian  Kingdom,  The  Kingdom  of  Burgundy  quite 
broke  in  pieces ,  some  of  its  princes  and  common- 
wealths still  kept  on  their  nominal  connexion  with  the 
Empire,  but  others  passed,  one  by  one,  by  one  means 
or  another,  under  the  power  of  France.  Thus  began 
that  growth  of  France  at  the  cost  of  the  kingdoms 
belonging  to  the  Empire,  of  which  we  had  a  sort  oi 
foreshadowing  in  the  battle  of  Bouvines,  and  which 
has  gone  on  ever  since,  till  it  was  stopped  only  yester- 
day. In  fact,  after  the  death  of  Frederick  the  Second, 
his  successors,  though  they  were  still  called  Kings 
and  Emperors  of  the  Romans,  were  really  very  little 
more  than  Kings  of  Germany,  and  even  in  Ger- 
many their  power  was  always  growing  less  and  less. 
The  time  from  the  death  of  Conrad  in  1254  to 
the  year  1273  is  commonly  called  the  Great  Interreg- 
num, because,  though  more  than  one  King  was  chosen 
during  that  time,  there  was  no  King  really  acknow- 
ledged by  all  Germany,  much  less  by  the  other  parts 
of  the  Empire.  In  1256  some  of  the  Electors  chose 
Richard  Earl  of  Cornwall,  brother  of  King  Henry  the 
Third  of  England,  and  others  chose  Alfonso  King  ol 
Castile.  Alfonso  never  came  to  Germany  at  all. 
Richard  came  and  was  crowned  King,  but  he  never 
was  crowned  Emperor,  and  he  kept  very  little  power 
in  Germany,  and  spent  most  of  his  time  in  England, 
where  we  often  hear  of  him  in  English  history.  He 
died  fn  1271,  the  year  before  his  brother  King  Henry. 
This  long  Interregnum  was  a  time  of  great  confusion 
in  Germany.  The  Empire  quite  lost  its  hold  over  the 
neighbouring  countries,  and  the  princes  in  Germany 
itself  greatly  enlarged  their  own  powers  vrhile  there 
was  no  King  to  keep  them  in  check.  In  short,  ever} 
sort  of  lawlessness  and  wickedness  was  rife  through 
the  whole  land.  At  last  men  felt  that  an  end  must  be 


*»  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAF 

put  to  such  a  state  of  things,  and  in   1273  a  King 
dwelling  in  the  land  was  once  more  chosen. 

2.  Kings  of  the  Houses  of  Habsburg   and 
Lvizelburg. — The   King  who  was  now  chosen  was 
not  one  of  the  great  Princes  ofi  the  Empire  ;    he  was 
Rudolf  Count  of  Habsburg,  a  castle  in  Aargau  in  the 
south  of  Swabia.      He  reigned  till  1292,  and  was  a 
brave  and  wise  man,  who  did  much  to  restore  peace 
and  to  subdue  Ottoctr  King  of  Bohemia  and  other  ene- 
mies.    He  was  the  founder  of  the  House  of  Habsburg 
or   of    Austria,    from   which    so   many    Kings    and 
Emperors    were    afterwards    chosen.      For    the   old 
Margraves  and   Dukes  of  Austria   had   come  to  an 
end,  and  the  Duchy  was  granted  by  Rudolf  to  his 
son    Albert,    from    whom    the    later    Dukes,    Kings, 
and    Emperors   of  the    Austrian    House   all    sprang. 
Neither   Rudolf  nor   either   of  the   two  next  Kings, 
Adolf  of  Nassau  and  Rudolf's  son  Albert,  was  ever 
crowned    Emperor.      Albert   was   the    first   Austrian 
King,   and   there   were   no   more  for  some  time  to 
come;   for,   when   he   was    murdered   in    1308,    the 
Electors  chose  Henry  Count  of  Luzelburg  or  Luxem- 
burg, who  reigned  as  Henry  the  Seventh.      In  his  time 
it  seemed  as  if  the  Empire  were  going  to  win  back 
again  all  its  old  power.     For  he  went  into  Italy,  and 
was  crowned  King  at  Milan  and  Emperor  at  Rome  in 
1312  ;  but  in  the  next  year  he  died,  by  poison  as  was 
thoughi,  and  his  great  schemes  died  with  him.     He 
was  however  able  to  provide  for  his  own  family  as 
Rudolf  had  done,  for  he  got  the  Kingdom  of  Bohemia 
for  his  son  John,  by  marrying  him  to  the  daughter  of 
the  last  King  Wenceslaus.     This  King  John  figures  a 
good  deal  in  the  history  of  the  time,  but  not  so  much 
either  in  his  own  kingdom  or  in  Germany  as  in  going 
about  as  a  kind  of  knight-errant  in  Italy  and  France. 
At  last  he  died  in  the  battle  of  Crecy  between  the 
French  and  the  English,  of  which  we  shall  speak 
presently.      He  was  never  Emperor  or  King  of  thf 


Xii.]  THE  LUZELDURG  EMPERORS.  201 

Romans  himself,  but  several  of  his  descendants  were, 
as  we  shall  soon  see.  On  the  death  of  Henry  the 
Seventh,  there  was  a  double  election  between  Lewit 
Duke  of  Bavaria  and  Frederick  Duke  of  Austria,  the 
son  of  King  Albert.  But  Lewis  reigned  in  the  end, 
and  in  1328  he  was  crowned  Emperor.  He  had 
great  quarrels  with  Pope  John  the  Twenty-second,  and 
each  professed  to  depose  the  other,  just  as  Gregory 
the  Seventh  and  Henry  the  Fourth  had  done.  Lewis 
was  again  declared  deposed  in  1346  by  Pope  Clement 
the  Sixth,  and  then  John  of  Bohemia  persuaded  the 
Electors  to  declare  the  Empire  vacant  and  to  elect  his 
son  Charles,  who  reigned  as  Charles  the  Fourth.  He 
was  crowned  Emperor  in  1347,  and,  what  one  would 
hardly  have  expected,  he  was  crowned  King  of  Bur- 
gundy at  Aries  in  1365.  Charles  made  a  good  King 
in  his  own  kingdom  of  Bohemia,  but  he  sadly  lowered 
the  Empire  both  in  Germany  and  in  Italy.  He  is 
chiefly  remembered  for  granting  a  charter  known  as 
the  Golden  Bidl,  by  which  the  way  of  choosing  the 
Emperor  was  finally  settled,  but  by  which  the  powers 
of  the  Empire  were  still  further  lessened  in  favour  of 
the  princes.  Then  followed  several  Kings  who  were 
never  crowned  Emperors,  and  on  whom  we  need  not 
dwell  long.  One  of  them,  Wenceslaus,  son  of  the 
Emperor  Charles,  so  far  from  taking  heed  to  Italy, 
took  none  to  Germany,  and  kept  always  in  Bohemia. 
At  last,  in  1410,  his  brother  Siegmund  was  chosen 
King,  and  he  was  crowned  Emperor  in  1433.  He  was 
already  Margrave  of  Brandenburg  and  King  of  Hun- 
gary, and  he  afterwards  became  King  of  Bohemia. 
The  truth  is  that  the  Empire  by  itself  was  growing 
so  weak  and  so  poor  that  it  was  found  needful  to 
choose  some  prince  for  Emperor  who  had  dominions 
of  his  own  which  would  enable  him  to  keep  up  his 
dignity.  And  in  Siegmund  we  get  the  beginning  of 
that  special  connexion  between  the  Empire  and  the 
Kingdom  of  Hungary  which  afterwards  became  oi 


204  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CIIA*. 

great  importance.  Siegmund  was  specially  zealous  in 
the  attempts  for  reforming  the  Church  of  which  we 
shall  hear  presently.  He  died  in  1437.  Then  came 
his  son-in-law  Albert  Duke  of  Austria,  who  died  in 
1439,  and  was  succeeded  by  another  Austrian  Prince, 
Frederick  Duke  of  Steiermark  or  Styria.  His  was  a 
very  long  reign,  lasting  from  1440  to  1493,  but  he 
himself  did  nothing  memorable.  In  1452  he  was 
crowned  Emperor  at  Rome,  being  the  last  Emperor 
who  was  crowned  there.  From  the  time  of  Siegmund 
we  may  look  on  the  Empire  as  putting  on  quite  a  new 
character.  Neither  as  Emperor  nor  as  King  of  Ger- 
many, was  the  Emperor  any  longer  the  chief  prince  of 
Europe.  But  the  Empire  was  now  held  by  princes 
who  were  powerful  through  their  dominions  both  in 
and  out  of  Germany,  Kings  of  Hungary,  Dukes  of 
Austria,  and  so  forth.  And,  from  the  time  of  Albert 
the  Second,  though  the  Emperors  were  still  always 
elected,  yet  the  Electors  always  chose  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Austria,  and  most  commonly  the  head  of 
that  House.  Thus  from  this  time  the  Emperors  were 
again  very  powerful  princes,  though  it  was  not  from 
the  Empire  that  they  drew  their  chief  strength.  The 
House  of  Austria  lent  its  strength  to  the  Empire, 
and  the  Empire  lent  its  dignity  to  the  House  of 
Austria,  and,  before  the  death  of  Frederick  the  Third, 
the  German  Emperor  was  again  the  only  Emperor. 
How  this  came  about  we  shall  see  presently. 

3.  The  Popes  at  Rome  and  Avignon. — We 
left  the  Popes  disputing  and  waging  war  against  the 
Emperor  Frederick  the  Second  and  his  descendants, 
both  in  Germany  and  in  Sicily.  There  were  however 
some  Popes  who  gave  their  minds  to  better  things. 
Thus,  nearly  about  the  same  time  that  Rudolf  was 
chosen  King,  a  very  good  Pope,  Gregory  the  Tenth, 
was  chosen  in  1271.  Indeed  Gregory  had  a  good 
deal  to  do  with  the  election  of  Rudolf ;  for  his  grea? 
wish  was  to  put  an  end  to  all  the  strifes  and  confusion* 


JCIL]  THE  POPES  AT  AVIGNON.  205 

which  were  going  on  in  Germany,  Italy,  and  elsewhere, 
and  to  make  all  Western  Europe  join  together  in  an 
attempt  to  win  back  the  Holy  Land.  He  even  brought 
about  for  a  moment  the  reconciliation  of  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Churches  ;  and,  between  him  and  King 
Rudolf  and  King  Edward  in  England,  it  almost  seemed 
that  the  whole  world  was  going  to  start  afresh  with  a 
good  beginning.  But  Gregory  only  reigned  a  little 
while  ;  he  died  in  1276,  and  the  real  power  and  glory 
of  the  Popes  died  with  him.  Boniface  the  Eighth,  who 
reigned  from  1294  to  1303,  tried  to  get  back  all  the 
powers  which  any  of  the  earlier  Popes  had  ever  made 
use  of.  'But  the  times  were  no  longer  fitted  for  this. 
The  more  Europe  began  to  settle  down  into  a  system 
of  distinct  nations,  and  the  more  the  Popes  began  to 
put  on  the  character  of  Italian  princes,  the  less  were 
they  able  to  act  as  rulers  of  the  whole  world,  even  in 
purely  ecclesiastical  matters.  Boniface  the  Eighth 
quarrelled  with  Philip  the  Fair,  the  King  of  the  French, 
and  in  the  end  Philip  sent  and  seized  him,  and  he 
died  soon  after.  The  next  Pope  but  one,  Clement  the 
Fifth,  was  a  Pope  of  Philip's  own  choosing,  and  was 
quite  at  his  beck  and  call.  He  lett  off  living  at  Rome, 
and  moved  his  Court  to  Avignon  on  the  Rhone,  just 
outeide  the  French  border.  Avignon  had  been  one 
of  the  free  commonwealths  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Burgundy ;  but  it  had  come  under  the  power  of  the 
Counts  of  Provence,  so  that  it  now  belonged  to  the 
French  King  of  Naples.  The  new  Pope  was  thus 
more  within  the  power  of  his  master  the  King  of  the 
French.  For  seventy  years  the  Popes  lived  at  Avignon 
instead  of  in  their  own  place  at  Rome,  a  time  which 
men  called  the  Babylonish  Captivity.  Of  course  this 
greatly  weakened  their  power.  Presently  Clement 
and  Philip  joined  together  to  destroy  the  order  of  the 
Templars,  which  had  done  such  great  things  in  the 
Holy  Wars.  We  can  well  believe  that  many  corrup- 
tions had  come  into  the  order,  but  no  one  can  believe 


K>6  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHA*. 

the  monstrous  tales  which  the  Pope  and  the  King  got 
up  against  them,  as  if  they  had  cast  aside  all  religion 
and  morals  altogether.  It  was  no  doubt  the  wealth 
of  the  knights  which  Philip  wished  to  seize  ;  so  the 
order  was  suppressed  throughout  Europe,  and  in 
France  many  of  its  members  were  cruelly  put  to 
death.  The  next  Pope,  John  the  Twenty-second,  had, 
as  we  before  said,  great  disputes  with  the  Emperor 
Lewis,  and  he  was  also  thought  to  have  gone  wrong 
in  some  hard  points  of  theology.  This  is  one  of 
many  things  which  show  how  much  men's  minds 
were  now  stirred  on  the  subject  of  religion,  as  we 
shall  presently  see.  The  Popes  did  not  finally  go 
back  to  Rome  till  1376,  in  the  time  of  Gregory  the 
Eleventh;  and,  when  he  died  two  years  afterwards, 
there  was  a  double  election.  Urban  the  Sixth,  an 
Italian,  was  the  first  chosen,  and  afterwards  Robert  of 
Geneva,  who  called  himself  Clement  the  Seventh.  So 
the  Church  was  divided.  Urban  lived  at  Rome  and 
Clement  at  Avignon,  and  some  nations  followed  one 
and  some  the  other ;  France  of  course  took  the  side 
of  the  Pope  at  Avignon,  and  England  therefore  took 
that  of  the  Pope  at  Rome.  There  were  thus  two 
opposition  Popes,  for,  when  Urban  and  Clement  died, 
their  several  parties  chose  others  to  succeed  them ; 
and  this  state  of  things  went  on  till  men  got  weary 
of  their  disputes,  and  tried  to  settle  them  in  another 
way. 

4.  The  General  Councils. — Ever  since  the 
time  of  Constantine,  General  Councils,  that  is  meetings 
of  Bishops  and  divines  from  all  parts,  had  been 
summoned,  first  by  the  Emperors  and  afterwards 
by  the  Popes,  whenever  there  were  matters  to  be  dis- 
cussed concerning  the  whole  Church.  Such  Councils 
were  always  held  to  have  greater  authority  than  the 
Popes.  But  of  course,  after  the  separation  of  East  and 
West,  they  could  not  really  represent  the  whole  Church, 
but  only  the  Western  part  of  it  So  now  a  srries  of 


XII.]  THE  GENERAL  COUNCILS.  207 

Councils  were  held  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  Church, 
especially  the  disputes  between  the  Popes.  The  first 
was  held  at  Pisa  in  1402.  This  Council  deposed  both 
the  Popes  and  chose  a  third,  Alexander  the  Fifth,  who 
was  succeeded  by  John  tJie  Twenty-third.  But  as  the 
other  two,  Benedict  the  Thirteenth  and  Gregory  the 
Twelfth,  would  not  give  in,  this  only  made  three  Popes 
instead  of  two.  At  last  in  1415  another  Council  was 
held  at  Constanz,  chiefly  by  the  help  of  King  Sieg- 
mund,  who  worked  very  hard  to  bring  about  the 
peace  of  the  Church.  This  Council  deposed  all  the 
three  Popes,  and  very  rightly ;  for  John  the  Twenty- 
third,  whether  he  were  rightly  chosen  or  not,  deserved 
to  be  deposed,  for  his  wickedness  reminded  men  of 
the  old  times  of  John  the  Twelfth.  The  Council 
then  elected  Martin  the  Fifth,  who  was  acknowledged 
everywhere  as  the  true  Pope.  But  the  Council  did  some 
other  things  which  were  less  to  its  credit  The  religious 
controversies  at  the  time,  and  the  abuses  of  the  Papal 
dominion,  had  led  everywhere  to  much  thought  on 
religious  matters  and  to  the  putting  forth  of  many  new 
doctrines.  In  England  John  Wickliffe,  a  doctor  of 
Oxford,  had  written  against  many  things  in  the  received 
belief  and  practice  of  the  times,  especially  against  the 
Begging  Friars,  that  is  the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans, 
who  professed  to  live  upon  alms.  He  made  many 
followers,  and  his  opinions  spread,  especially  in 
Bohemia.  Two  of  the  chief  Bohemian  preachers, 
John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague,  were  brought  be- 
fore the  Council  and  were  burned,  to  the  great  shame 
of  King  Siegmund,  who  had  plighted  his  word  for  the 
safety  of  Huss.  The  followers  of  Huss-  in  Bohemia 
now  rebelled,  and  a  fearful  civil  war  followed.  In 
1431  there  was  another  Council  held  at  Basel,  which 
professed  to  depose  Pope  Eugenius  the  Fourth,  and 
which  lasted  from  1431  to  1439.  This  Council,  had 
its  decrees  taken  effect,  would  have  greatly  lessened 
the  powers  of  the  Popes  and  increased  those  of  the 


208  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAF 

Bishops  and  the  national  Churches,  bringing  things  in 
short  more  to  the  state  in  which  they  were  in  early 
times.  But  the  Council  of  Basel  gradually  fell  into 
discredit,  and  it  died  out.  The  Popes  never  liked 
these  Councils  which  were  held  in  places  north  of  the 
Alps,  like  Basel  and  Constanz ;  and  meanwhile  Pope 
Eugenius  held  a  Council  of  his  own  in  Italy,  first  at 
ferrara  and  then  at  Florence,  where  in  1439  another 
nominal  reconciliation  with  the  Eastern  Church  was 
made.  This  was  because  the  Eastern  Empire  was 
just  then  at  its  last  gasp,  and  was  glad  to  get  help  from 
the  West  on  any  terms.  For  the  rest  of  this  century 
the  Popes  must  be  looked  on  as  little  more  than 
Italian  princes,  and  we  will  speak  of  them  again  aa 
such. 

5.  The  Revival  of  Learning  in  Italy. — 
During  all  this  time  we  may  look  on  Italy  as  being  in 
some  sort  the  central  nation  of  Europe.  It  had 
indeed  no  kind  of  political  power  over  other  nations, 
for  the  power  of  the  Emperors  was  gone,  and  this 
time,  when  the  Popes  were  so  much  away  in  Gaul, 
was.just  the  time  when  they  were  less  Italian,  and  had 
less  power  both  in  Italy  and  elsewhere,  than  at  any 
time  before  or  after.  And  Italy,  cut  up  as  it  was  into 
many  principalities  and  commonwealths,  was  in  no  state 
to  bear  rule  over  other  nations.  Still  it  might  be  called 
the  centre  of  Europe,  as  being  the  country  which  had 
more  to  do  with  the  rest  of  the  world  than  any  other  one 
country.  It  was  the  country  to  which  others  looked  up 
as  being  at  the  head  in  arts,  learning,  and  commerce, 
and  it  was  the  country  too  where,  just  as  in  old  Greece, 
there  was  the  greatest  political  life  among  the  many 
small  states.  But  of  course,  as  in  old  Greece  also, 
this  was  bought  at  the  cost  of  constant  wars  between  the 
different  cities  and  of  many  disturbances  within  them. 
The  two  nations  which  had  been  the  most  civilized  in 
Europe,  the  Greeks  in  the  East  and  the  Saracens  in 
the  West,  were  now  falling  before  the  Turks  >ud  th« 


xii. J  THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING.  209 

Spanisn  Christians.  The  Italians  in  some  sort  took 
their  place.  Ever  since  the  twelfth  century  there  had 
been  a  great  movement  of  men's  minds  in  the  way  of 
learning,  and  this  turned  more  and  more  towards  the 
study  of  the  ancient  Latin  writers,  and  after  a  while 
the  Greek  also.  And  studies  of  this  kind  also  had  an 
important  political  effect.  Thus  men  in  the  twelfth 
century  began  to  study  the  old  Roman  Law,  and  this 
study  disposed  them  much  in  favour  of  the  Swabian 
Emperors.  So  again,  somewhat  later,  the  study  of 
the  old  Latin  poets,  and  what  they  said  about  the  old 
Caesars,  led  men  to  welcome  Henry  the  Seventh  and 
the  Emperors  who  came  after  him.  The  great  poet 
Dante  Alighieri  was  strong  on  the  Imperial  side,  both 
in  his  poems  and  in  his  prose  writings,  and  he  re- 
proaches King  Albert  for  staying  away  from  Italy  and 
not  taking  heed  to  the  garden  of  the  Empire.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  study  of  the  ancient  republican 
writers,  and  the  praises  which  they  give  to  the  killeis 
of  tyrants,  several  times  stirred  up  men  in  the  fifteenth 
century  to  conspiracies  against  the  Popes  and  other 
princes.  Towards  the  end  of  the  time  with  which  we 
have  to  do  printing  was  invented  ;  and  though  it  was 
not  invented  in  Italy  but  in  Germany,  by  Gutenbur% 
at  Mainz,  yet  it  was  in  Italy,  where  there  were  more 
learned  men  and  writers  than  elsewhere,  that  it  was 
for  a  long  while  of  the  most  importance.  Gunpowder 
too,  an  invention  as  important  in  war  as  printing  was 
in  peace,  gradually  came  into  use  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries.  It  quite  changed  the  manner 
of  warfare ;  the  old  style  of  armour  and  the  old  style 
of  fortification,  both  of  which  had  in  Italy  been 
carried  to  such  perfection  that  men  could  not  be 
wounded,  and  castles  could  not  be  taken,  by  any  arms 
then  known,  now  became  of  little  use,  and  a  new 
order  of  things  in  warfare  began. 

6.  The    Commonwealths    of    Italy. — Mean- 
while the  political  state  of  Italy  greatly  changed.     The 


210  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAP. 

separate  cities,  which  had  in  the  twelfth  century  beer 
independent  commonwealths,  were  gradually  grouped 
together  into  larger  states.  Sometimes  the  lord  or 
tyrant  of  one  city  got  possession  of  several  cities,  so 
as  to  form  a  large  continuous  dominion.  In  such 
cases  a  ruler  generally  tried  to  give  some  show  of  law- 
fulness to  his  power  by  getting  the  Pope  or  the 
Emperor  to  invest  him  with  his  dominions  as  a  fief, 
and  to  give  him  the  title  of  Duke  or  Marquess  as  an 
hereditary  prince.  Thus,  in  the  course  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  the  chief  power  at  Milan  gradually 
came  into  the  hands  of  the  family  of  the  Visconti. 
Then,  in  1395,  Gian-Galeazzo  Visconti,  who  was  Lora 
of  Milan  and  held  Pavia  and  other  cities  of  Lombardy, 
bought  a  charter  from  King  Wenceslaus  making  him 
Duke  of  Milan.  The  Dukes  of  Milan,  through  the 
wealth  and  industry  of  the  cities  over  which  they 
ruled,  became  far  richer  and  more'powerful  than  many 
princes  who  had  much  wider  dominions,  but,  now  that 
their  dominions  were  made  hereditary,  they  were  laid 
open  to  the  usual  disputes  and  wars  as  to  the  right  of 
succession  to  the  duchy.  When  Fitippo-Maria,  the 
last  of  the  Viseonti,  died  in  1447,  the  Milanese  tried  to 
set  their  ancient  commonwealth  up  again.  But  they 
were  obliged  to  admit  Francesco  Sforza,  the  son-in-law 
of  the  late  Duke,  as  his  successor.  He  was  one  of  a 
class  of  men  of  whom  there  were  then  many  in  Italy, 
mercenary  generals  who  went  about  with  bands  of 
soldiers,  hiring  themselves  out  to  fight  for  any  prince 
or  commonwealth  that  would  pay  them.  It  was  by 
the  help  of  such  leaders  that  most  of  the  princes  and 
commonwealths  of  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  waged  their  wars.  Thus  there  was  a  new 
dynasty  at  Milan,  that  of  the  Sforza.  Meanwhile,  as 
some  of  the  cities  of  Northern  Italy  thus  fell  under  the 
power  of  the  Dukes  of  Milan,  so  others  came  under 
the  power  of  the  commonwealth  of  Venice.  For  it  was 
in  Italy  at  this  time  just  as  it  was  lorg  before  in  old 


EUROPE 

towards  the  end  of  the 
FOURTEENTH  CENTURY 


xii.  ]  THE  STA  TE  OF  ITAL  K  211 

Greece  ;  one  city  bore  rule  over  another.  Venice,  33 
we  have  seen,  had  gained  the  first  position  in  the 
world  as  a  maritime  power,  holding  large  possessions 
in  the  East.  But  in  the  fifteenth  century  she  was 
tempted  to  become  a  land  power  also,  and  she  won 
a  large  dominion  over  the  cities  in  the  north-east  of 
Italy.  The  government  of  Venice  had  by  this  time 
grown  into  a  narrow  oligarchy.  The  chief  power  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  noble  families,  quite  shutting  out 
the  people  and  leaving  very  little  power  to  the  Doge. 
But,  though  Venice  was  an  oligarchy,  yet  it  was  a 
prudent  and  moderate  oligarchy,  which  never  failed 
to  supply  wise  statesmen  and  brave  commanders  by 
sea.  For  the  fleets  of  Venice  were  always  manned  by 
her  own  citizens  and  subjects,  though  by  land  mercenary 
troops  were  commonly  used.  Genoa  also  remained  a 
republic,  and  kept  up  a  great  deal  of  her  old  maritime 
power.  At  one  time,  in  1379,  she  seemed  almost  on 
the  point  of  conquering  Venice.  But  at  Genoa,  un- 
like Venice,  there  were  constant  internal  revolutions, 
and  the  city  had  several  times  to  submit  to  the  Dukes 
of  Milan  and  the  Kings  of  France.  The  other  great 
maritime  commonwealth,  Pisa,  lost  nearly  all  her 
power  after  a  sea-fight  with  the  Genoese  in  1284,  and 
at  last  in  1406  Pisa  became  subject  to  Florence.  This 
last  commonwealth,  which  had  not  been  prominent 
in  the  twelfth  century,  gradually  became,  in  the  course 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  one  of  the  chief  states  of 
Italy.  As  Venice  was  the  greatest  example  in  later 
times  of  an  aristocratic  commonwealth,  so  Florence 
was  the  greatest  example  of  a  democracy.  In  this 
way  the  two  in  some  sort  answer  to  Sparta  and  Athens 
in  the  old  Greek  times.  At  Florence  the  old  nobles 
were  quite  put  down  in  1292,  but,  in  the  course  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  a  kind  of  new  nobility  gradually  arose. 
Among  these,  one  familyin  particular,  thatof  the  Medici^ 
gradually  rose  to  have  the  chief  power  in  the  state, 
though  without  disturbing  the  forms  of  the  common- 


ti2  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CIIA?, 

wealth,  or  taking  any  particular  title  to  themselves. 
Such  were  Cosmo  de1  Medici,  called  the  Father  of  his 
Country,  and  his  grandson  Lorenzo.  Their  power  was 
of  a  different  kind  from  that  of  the  lords  or  tyrants, 
either  in  old  Greece  or  in  other  cities  of  Italy.  Nor 
was  it  such  a  power  as  that  of  Perikles  at  Athens,  for 
it  passed  on  from  father  to  son.  It  was  more  like  the 
power  of  Augustus  and  the  other  Roman  Emperors 
who  respected  the  forms  of  the  commonwealth.  On 
the  whole,  Florence,  though  the  greatest  and  most 
famous  democratic  state  in  later  times,  was  by  no 
means  so  pure  and  regular  a  democracy  as  Athens  was. 
Still  there  was  no  part  of  Europe  where  there  was 
so  much  life,  political,  intellectual,  and  commercial. 
Dante,  the  greatest  of  all  Italian  poets,  was  born  at 
Florence  in  1265,  and  died  in  banishment  in  1321. 
Many  other  of  the  chief  artists  and  men  of  letters 
also  belonged  to  Florence ;  the  commerce  of  the  city 
was  famous,  and  its  bankers  lent  money  to  Kings 
in  England  and  elsewhere.  And  in  the  time  of  the 
Medici  there  was  no  city  in  Italy  where  greater  en- 
couragement was  given  to  the  men  who  were  engaged 
in  reviving  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  learning. 

7.  Rome  and  the  Popes. — Rome  meanwhile, 
forsaken  as  the  city  was  for  so  long  both  by  the 
Emperors  and  by  the  Popes,  quite  lost  its  old  place  in 
Italy,  and  did  not  begin  to  win  it  back  again  till  the 
affairs  of  the  Popes  became  more  settled  after  the 
Council  of  Constanz.  Tne  Romans  never  forgot  the 
old  greatness  of  their  city,  and,  as  men's  minds  were 
constantly  falling  back  on  old  times,  one  Cola  di  Rienzi 
in  1347  set  up  again  for  a  short  time  what  he  called 
the  Good  State,  and  ruled  himself  by  the  title  of  Tribune. 
So  again,  after  the  Popes  came  back  to  Rome,  there 
were  one  or  two  conspiracies  to  set  up  the  old  com- 
monwealth ;  but  from  the  Council  of  Constanz  onward? 
we  may  look  on  the  Popes  as  undoubted  temporal 
princes  of  Rome.  They  were  gradually  able  to  biing 


xii.]  ROME  AND   THE  POPES.  213 

under  their  power  all  that  part  of  Italy,  stretching  from 
one  sea  to  the  other,  over  which  they  professed 
to  have  rights  by  the  grants  of  various  Kings  and 
Emperors.  The  latter  Popes  of  the  fifteenth  century 
must  be  looked  on  as  little  more  than  Italian  princes, 
and  many  of  them  were  among  the  very  worst  of  the 
Italian  princes.  Some  of  them,  like  Nicolas  the  Fifth^ 
did  some  good  in  the  way  of  encouraging  learning;  and 
Pius  the  Second,  who  reigned  from  1458  to  1464,  and 
who  is  famous  as  a  writer  by  his  former  name  of  J£ncas 
Silvius,  tried,  like  Gregory  the  Tenth,  to  get  the 
Christian  princes  to  join  in  a  Crusade  for  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  East.  But  Sixtus  the  Fourth  and  Innocent 
the  Eighth  were  among  the  worst  of  the  Popes,  men  who 
thought  of  nothing  except  increasing  their  temporal 
power  and  advancing  their  own  families. 

8.  The  Two  Sicilies. — The  Two  Sicilies  mean- 
while remained  divided.  The  Kingdom  of  Sicily  on 
the  mainland,  often  called  the  Kingdom  of  Naples, 
was  in  extent  the  greatest  state  in  Italy,  and  some  of 
its  Kings,  especially  Robert,  who  reigned  from  1309  to 
1343,  played  an  important  part  in  Italian  affairs.  But 
it  shows  how  much  greater  was  the  life  of  the  separate 
cities,  even  when  they  were  not  under  a  free  government, 
when  we  see  how  this  large  kingdom  lagged  behind  the 
rest  of  Italy,  and  how,  even  in  political  power,  it  was 
not  more  than  on  a  level  with  the  principalities  and 
commonwealths  of  Northern  Italy  which  were  not  above 
half  its  size.  This  Kingdom  of  Sicily  was  much 
torn  in  pieces  by  civil  wars  arising  out  of  disputed 
successions  to  the  Crown.  Two  bad  Queens,  Joanna  tfo 
First  (1343  to  1382)  and  Joanna  the  Second  (1419 
to  1435),  caused  much  confusion  by  their  different 
marriages*  and  adoptions  of  successors.  During  the 
greater  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  crown  was 
disputed  between  a  branch  of  the  House  of  Aragon, 
who  for  the  most  part  kept  possession,  and  the  Dukes 
of  Anjou,  a  branch  of  the  royal  house  of  France,  who 


214  77/3?  DECLINE  OF  THE  EM  PI  PL.       [CHAP 

ever  and  anon  tried  to  make  their  own  claims  good. 
At  last  the  claims  of  the  Angevin  princes  passed  to  the 
Kings  of  France  themselves,  and  then  many  important 
events  followed.  Meanwhile  in  the  Island  of  Sicily 
the  other  branch  of  the  house  of  Aragon  went  on 
reigning.  The  first  King  Frederick,  who  established 
the  independence  of  the  island,  ruled  bravely  and 
wisely,  but  after  him  the  island  kingdom  became  of  no 
account  at  all.  At  last  Sicily  became  united  to  the 
Kingdom  of  Aragon,  another  step  towards  the  great 
events  of  the  next  period. 

9.  England,  France,  and  Scotland. — A  great 
part  of  the  history  of  the  lands  beyond  the  Alps  during 
this  time  is  taken  up  by  the  long  wars  between  England 
and  France.  These  had  now  become  thoroughly  na- 
tional wars,  and  before  long  they  grew  into  attempts 
at  a  complete  conquest  of  France  on  the  part  of 
England.  And  the  wars  between  England  and  France 
are  a  good  deal  mixed  up  with  the  wars  of  the  English 
Kings  with  Scotland,  and  even  with  Wales.  For, 
when  England  and  France  became  constant  national 
enemies,  it  was  the  natural  policy  of  the  French  Kings 
to  raise  up  enemies  to  their  rivals  within  their  own 
island.  It  was  the  object  of  Edward  trie  First,  like 
that  of  his  namesake  Edward  the  Elder  in  old  times,  to 
join  all  Britain,  as  far  as  might  be,  under  one  dominion. 
That  part  of  Wales  which  still  kept  its  own  princes  was 
joined  on  in  1282.  Wales  was  never  again  separated 
from  England ;  but  once  or  twice,  when  there  were 
revolts  in  Wales,  those  who  were  discontented  with 
the  English  rule  tried  to  get  help  from  France.  How 
Scotland  was  for  a  moment  united  with  England,  how, 
after  the  death  of  Edward  the  First,  it  was  again 
separated  under  its  King  Robert  Bruce,  how  in 
1328  Scotland  was  acknowledged  by  England  as  an 
independent  kingdom,  but  how  constant  rivalries  and 
wars  went  on  between  the  two  kingdoms  in  or  e  island, 
must  be  told  more  fully  in  our  Histories  of  England 


XH.]    ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  SCOTLAND.       215 

and  Scotland.  The  point  to  be  borne  in  mind  now  is 
that,  from  this  time,  we  find  a  steady  alliance  between 
France  and  Scotland  against  England.  This  began 
as  early  as  the  time  of  Edward  the  First.  In  the  long 
wars  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  we  now 
and  then  find  French  troops  serving  in  Scotland,  while 
the  Scots  soon  learned  to  take  service  in  France,  and 
in  the  later  wars  we  find  them  serving  against  the 
English  in  every  battle.  Through  this  close  connexion 
with  France,  Scotland  came  to  hold  a  higher  place  in 
Europe  than  she  could  otherwise  have  had  from  her 
size  and  position. 

10.  Wars  between  England  and  France. — 
During  the  reigns  of  Edward  the  First  and  of  his  son 
Edward  the  Second,  who  reigned  from  1307  to  1327, 
the  rivalry  between  England  and  France  did  not  lead 
to  any  great  war.  Philip  the  Fair  got  possession  of  the 
Duchy  of  Aquitaine  in  the  year  1294,  but  he  had  soon 
to  give  it  up  again.  It  was  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
the  Third,  from  1327  to  1377,  that  the  great  war  began 
which  the  French  writers  call  the  Hundred  Years'  War. 
It  was  something  like  the  Peloponnesian  War  in 
Greece  in  old  times ;  for,  though  there  was  not  actual 
fighting  going  on  for  the  whole  time,  yet  there  was 
no  firm  or  lasting  peace  between  the  two  countries  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years.  Edward  the  Third  pro- 
fessed to  have  a  claim  to  the  Crown  of  France  through 
his  mother  Isabel,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Philip  the 
Fair.  But  the  French  held  that  no  right  to  the  Crown 
could  pass  through  a  woman.  And  Edward  might 
very  likely  not  have  pressed  his  claim,  had  not  the 
French  King,  Philip  of  Valois,  driven  him  into  war 
by  his  attempts  to  get  possession  of  Aquitaine.  A 
long  war  followed,  which  was  famous  for  the  taking  of 
Calais  and  for  the  great  victories  of  the  English  at 
Crecy  in  1346  and  at  Poitiers  in  1356.  Edward,  as 
was  natural,  was  an  ally  of  the  Emperor  Lewis  and  of 
the  Flemish  cities,  which  wert  now  beginning  to  rise 


zi<5  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAP. 

into  great  importance,  though  they  never  won  the  same 
complete  independence  as  those  of  Italy.  The  feudal 
superiority  over  Flanders  belonged  to  France  ;  the 
Flemings  were  therefore  better  pleased  when  King 
Edward  took  the  title  of  King  of  France,  so  that  they 
might  seem  to  be  fighting  for,  and  not  against,  their  over- 
lord. As  King  Edward  was  an  ally  of  the  Emperor 
Lewis,  it  came  about  that  King  John  of  Bohemia  took 
the  French  side,  so  that  he  and  his  son  Charles,  who  had 
just  been  chosen  King  of  the  Romans,  were  both  at 
Crecy,  and  King  John  was  killed  there.  At  Poitiers 
another  King  John,  the  French  King  himself,  was  taken 
prisoner,  and,  as  David  King  of  Scots,  the  son  of  Robert 
Bruce,  was  taken  prisoner  in  1346,  there  were  two  cap- 
tive Kings  in  England  at  once.  This  first  part  of  the 
war  with  France  was  ended  by  the  Peace  of  Bretigny  in 
1360,  by  which  Edward  gave  up  his  claim  to  the  Crown 
of  France,  but  kept  his  possessions  in  Aquitaine, 
together  with  Calais  and  some  other  small  districts, 
and  that  no  longer  as  a  vassal  of  the  French  King, 
but  as  an  independent  sovereign.  Edward  then 
granted  his  dominions  in  the  south  to  his  son  Edward, 
called  the  Black  Prince,  who  ruled  at  Bourdeaux  as 
Prince  of  Aquitaine.  Before  long  the  Peace  of  Bre- 
tigny  was  broken  by  the  French  King  Charles  the  Fifth, 
and,  before  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Third, 
the  English  had  lost  nearly  all  their  possessions  in 
Aquitaine  except  the  cities  of  Bourdeaux  and  Bayonne. 
The  cities  commonly  stuck  to  the  English  rule,  under 
which  they  were  less  meddled  with,  while  the  nobles 
were  mostly  for  a  union  with  France.  After  the 
peace  was  broken.  King  Edward  again  took  up  his 
title  of  King  of  France,  which  was  borne  by  all  the 
Kings  of  England  down  to  the  year  1800.  Then 
came  a  time  which  was  neither  war  nor  peace.  Many 
truces  were  made,  and  now  and  then  there  was  some 
little  fighting,  but  it  was  not  until  the  reign  of  Henry 
the  Fifth  in  England  that  the  war  began  again  on  3 


JCII.J  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS  WA'K.  217 

great  scale.  He  took  advantage  of  the  dissensions  by 
which  France  was  torn  in  pieces  during  the  reign  ol 
the  weak,  or  rather  mad,  King  Charles  the  Sixth.  He 
won  the  Battle  of  Agincourt  in  1415,  took  Rouen  in 
1419,  and  in  1420  concluded  the  Treaty  of  Troy  es,  by 
which  Henry  was  to  succeed  to  the  crown  of  France 
on  the  death  of  Charles,  and  the  crowns  of  England 
and  France  were  to  be  ever  after  united.  Both  Charles 
and  Henry  died  in  1422,  but  a  large  part  of  France 
refused  to  acknowledge  the  treaty;  so,  after  their  deaths, 
the  war  went  on  between  Charles  the  Seiienth,  who 
reigned  at  Bourges,  and  John  Duke  of  Bedford,  who 
was  Regent  of  France  for  his  nephew  Henry  the  Sixth. 
Now  comes  the  great  story  of  the  waking  up  of  France 
under  the  famous  Maid  of  Orleans,  Joan  of  Arc.  She 
came  from  the  borders  of  Lorraine,  but  she  was 
called  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  because  she  relieved  that 
city  when  it  was  besieged  by  the  English.  By  her 
means  Charles  the  Seventh  was  crowned  at  Rheims, 
the  old  crowning-place  of  the  French  Kings,  in  1429. 
He  thus  got  the  start  of  his  English  rival,  who  had  not 
yet  been  crowned,  but  who  was  now  crowned  at  Paris 
in  1431.  The  war  now  went  on  for  a  long  time,  and, 
after  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  it  was  for  the 
most  part  badly  managed  on  the  English  side.  The 
English  were  gradually  driven  out,  not  only  from 
France,  but  from  Aquitaine  also,  till  at  last,  in  1453, 
Bourdeaux  and  Bayonne  were  finally  taken  by  the 
French,  and  the  English  kept  nothing  on  the  continent 
except  the  territory  of  Calais.  The  Hundred  Years' 
War  was  now  over.  The  Kings  of  England  still  kept 
on  their  claim  to  the  Crown  of  France,  and  they  now 
and  then  professed  to  make  attempts  to  recover  it. 
But,  though  there  were  for  a  long  time  many  wars 
between  England  and  France  and  long  enmity  between 
the  two  nations,  the  notion  of  conquering  France  was 
never  again  seriously  taken  up  after  the  time  of  Henrj 
the  Sixth. 


2i8  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE. 

ii.  The  Growth  of  France. — The  long  wars  of 
the  English  were  a  great  check  to  the  growth  of  the 
Kingdom  of  France,  yet  it  was  growing  all  this  time, 
both  by  uniting  the  territories  of  the  great  vassals  to 
the  Crown  and  by  annexations  at  the  expense  of  its 
neighbours.  These  were  of  course  mainly  made  at 
the  expense  of  the  Empire ;  but,  as  Aquitaine  had 
become  an  independent  state  by  the  Tieaty  of  Bre- 
tigny,  its  conquest  also  may  be  looked  on  rather  as  a 
foreign  conquest  than  as  the  union  of  a  great  fief  to  the 
Crown.  And  it  was  during  this  time  that  the  French 
Kings  began  the  process  which  has  gone  on  ever  since, 
that  of  joining  the  states  which  made  up  the  Kingdom 
of  Burgundy  one  by  one  to  the  Kingdom  of  France. 
Even  before  this  they  had  taken  the  little  County  of 
Venaissin,  but  that  had  been  given  up  to  the  Popes. 
But  now  they  began  in  earnest.  In  1314,.  Philip  the 
Fair  took  advantage  of  the  disputes  which  the  citizens 
of  the  Imperial  city  of  Lyons  had  with  their  Arch- 
bishops, and  annexed  the  city  to  his  own  dominions.  In 
1349,  in  the  thick  of  the  English  wars,  the  last  of  the 
princes  of  Vienne  on  the  Rhone,  who  from  their  arms 
bore  the  title  of  Dauphin  or  Dolphin,  sold  his  domi- 
nions to  Charles  the  eldest  son  of  King  John  of  France, 
and  from  this  time  it  became  the  rule  that  the  eldest 
son  of  the  King  of  France  bore  the  title  of  Dauphin. 
The  County  of  Provence  also,  though  not  part  of  the 
Kingdom  of  France,  was,  from  the  time  of  Charles  of 
Anjou  onwards,  held  by  French  princes.  And  so  it 
came  about  that,  somewhat  after  our  present  time,  in 
1481,  Lewis  the  Eleventh,  the  son  of  Charles  the 
Seventh,  was  able  to  add  Provence  also  to  France. 
The  French  Kings  also  more  than  once  got  hold  of 
the  County  of  Burgundy  or  Franche  Comte,  of  which 
Dole  is  the  capital.  But  this  they  were  not  able  per- 
manently to  keep  till  long  afterwards.  Still,  before 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  acquisition  of 
Provence,  Lyons,  and  the  Dauphiny  of  Vienne  had 


Ml.]  GROWTH  OF  PRANCE.  219 

given  the  French  Kings  a  good  half  of  the  Burgun. 
dian  kingdom.  The  only  princes  of  any  great  powet 
left  in  that  part  of  the  world  were  the  Counts,  after- 
wards Dukes,  of  Savoy,  who  ruled  on  both  sides  of  thi 
Lake  of  Geneva,  and  who  had  also  possessions  in  the 
north-west  corner  of  Italy.  In  other  parts  of  the 
Empire  also,  even  where  the  French  Kings  did  not 
make  conquests,  they  were  winning  influence.  To 
the  north  of  their  own  dominions  they  often  had  wars 
with  the  stout  people  of  the  Flemish  cities,  over  whom 
they  sometimes  won  victories,  but  by  whom  they  were 
sometimes  defeated.  The  battle  of  Courtray  in  the 
time  of  Philip  the  Fair  is  famous  as  the  first  great 
victory  north  of  the  Alps  won  by  townsmen  over 
nobles.  On  the  whole,  notwithstanding  the  long  wars 
with  England,  the  kingdom  of  France  had  greatly 
grown  in  power  and  in  extent  in  the  times  between 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  and  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth. 

12.  Beginning  of  the  Swiss  League. — While 
the  three  kingdoms  which  belonged  to  the  Empire 
were  thus  getting  weaker  and  more  divided,  and  while 
the  kingdom  of  France  to  the  west  of  them  was  growing 
stronger  and  stronger,  two  new  powers  gradually  arose 
in  what  we  may  call  the  border-land  of  all  these  king- 
doms. One  of  these  lasted  but  a  short  time,  but  the 
other  has  lived  on  to  our  own  day.  These  are  the  Duchy 
of  Burgundy  and  the  League  of  the  Swiss  Cantons.  This 
last  began  among  three  small  mountain  districts  on 
vne  borders  of  Germany,  Burgundy,  and  Italy,  called 
Uri,  Schivyz,  and  Unterwalden.  They  were  German- 
speaking  members  of  the  Empire,  and  there  was 
nothing  to  distinguish  them  from  other  German- 
speaking  members  of  the  Empire,  except  that  they  had 
kept  far  more  of  the  freedom  of  the  old  times  than 
most  other  lands  had.  Like  many  other  districts 
and  cities  of  the  Empire,  they  joined  together  in  a 
League  for  mutual  defence.  This  they  had  doubtlesi 


220  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAP, 

done  from  earlier  times,  but  the  first  written  document 
of  their  union  belongs  to  the  year  1291.  The  Counts 
of  Habsburg,  who  had  now  become  Dukes  of  Austria, 
and  who  had  estates  within  the  three  lands  themselves, 
were  now  very  dangerous  neighbours,  and  the  Con- 
federates had  to  keep  close  together  in  order  to  guard 
their  freedom.  This  they  made  safe  by  the  battle  of 
Morgarten,  which  they  won  over  Duke  Leopold  oj 
Austria  in  1315.  Presently  several  of  the  neigh- 
bouring cities,  Luzern,  Zurich,  and  Bern,  joined 
their  alliance,  as  also  did  the  smaller  towns  of  Zug 
and  Glarus ;  so  that  in  the  course  of  the  fourteenth 
century  they  formed  a  league  of  eight  states.  Its 
name  was  the  Old  League  of  ffigh  Germany,  and 
its  members  were  called  the  Eidgenossen  or  Confede- 
rates ;  but  the  name  of  the  Canton  of  Schwyz  gradually 
spread  over  the  whole  League,  and  they  came  to  be 
commonly  called  Swiss  and  their  country  Switzerland. 
But  it  is  only  in  quite  late  times  that  those  names 
have  come  into  formal  use.  Such  a  league  was  of 
course  much  dreaded  by  the  neighbouring  nobles,  but 
it  was  for  a  long  time  favoured  by  the  Emperors.  The 
three  lands  had  been  specially  loyal  to  the  Swabian 
Emperors,  and  they  were  no  less  favoured  by  Henry 
the  Seventh  and  Lewis  of  Bavaria.  Charles  the 
Fourth  was  their  enemy,  but  they  were  again  favoured 
by  his  son  Siegmund.  But  the  Dukes  of  Austria  were 
their  constant  enemies,  and  therefore,  when  the  Em- 
pire passed  into  the  Austrian  House,  the  Confederates 
had  to  be  on  their  guard  against  the  power  which  had 
hitherto  been  friendly.  But  they  did  not  throw  off 
their  allegiance  to  the  Empire,  and,  during  all  the  time 
of  uhich  we  speak,  the  Confederates  remained  a  purely 
German  body,  although  some  parts  of  their  territory, 
including  Bern,  which  was  the  most  powerful  member 
of  the  League,  lay  within  the  bounds  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Burgundy.  The  Confederates  had  to  wage  several 
nars  for  the  defence  of  their  freedom,  as  when  in  1386 


XII.  1  THE  SWISS  LEAGUE.  221 

they  won  the  battle  of  Sempacli  over  another  Duke 
Leopold  of  Austria  and  a  great  confederacy  of  the  nobles, 
and  when  in  1444  they  were  attacked  by  the  Dauphin 
Lewis,  afterwards  Lewis  flie  Eleventh.  They  had 
also  some  disputes  and  even  civil  wars  among  them- 
selves ;  but  on  the  whole  the  League  steadily  ad- 
vanced and  made  many  alliances  with  its  neighbours. 
And  these  commonwealths  also,  like  those  of  old 
Greece  and  of  Italy,  conquered,  or  sometimes  bought, 
various  towns  and  districts,  which  they  held  as  their 
subjects.  Thus,  by  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury the  Confederates  had  grown  into  a  new  power  in 
Europe,  and  one  which  was  getting  more  and  more 
independent  of  the  Empire.  But  they  in  no  sort 
formed  a  nation,  because  all  the  members  of  the 
League  were  still  purely  German.  They  were  simply 
one  of  many  German  Leagues,  which  circumstances 
allowed  to  become  more  independent  than  the  others, 
and,  as  it  turned  out,  to  survive  them.  We  must  now 
speak  of  the  other  power  which  was  growing  up  mean- 
while in  the  border-lands,  and  with  which  the  Con^ 
federates  presently  had  a  great  deal  to  do. 

13.  The  Dukds  of  Burgundy. — It  must  be  al- 
ways borne  in  mind  that  the  name  Burgundy  has  several 
meanings.  Thus,  besides  the  Kingdom  of  Burgundy, 
which,  in  the  times  of  which  we  are  now  speaking, 
quite  fell  to  pieces  and  was  almost  forgotten,  there 
was  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  which  was  a  rief  of  the 
Crown  of  France,  and  the  County  of  Burgundy,  which 
was  part  of  the  Kingdom,  and  therefore  a  fief  of  the 
Empire.  A  power  now  began  to  arise,  which  took  in 
more  than  one  of  these  Burgundies,  and  which  seemed 
not  unlikely  to  bring  back  the  old  times  when  there 
was  a  Middle  Kingdom  of  Burgundy  or  of  Lotharingia 
lying  between  Germany,  Italy,  and  France.  This 
came  about  in  this  way.  The  French  Duchy  of  Bur- 
gundy fell  in  to  the  Crown  in  1361,  and  Philip  the  son 
of  King  John  of  France  became  the  first  of  a  new 


Z22  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAI. 

line  of  Dukes,  that  of  Valois.  He  married  Margartt 
the  heiress  of  Flanders,  and  thus  united  two  of  the 
greatest  fiefs  of  the  Crown  of  France.  Of  these  two, 
Flanders,  where  the  great  cities  were  always  quarrel- 
ling with  the  Counts,  was  almost  an  independent 
state.  After  Philip  there  reigned  three  Dukes  of  his 
family,  John  the  Fearless  from  1404  to  1419,  Philip  t/u 
Good  from  1419  to  1467,  and  Charles  the  Boldjrow 
1467  to  1477.  All  these  Dukes,  as  French  princes, 
played  a  great  part  in  the  affairs  of  France.  They 
also  were  always  winning  in  all  kinds  of  ways,  by 
marriage,  by  purchase,  or  by  conquest,  large  territories 
within  the  Empire,  including  the  greater  part  of  the 
Netherlands  or  Lent)  Countries,  taking  in  nearly  all  both 
of  the  present  Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands  and  the 
present  Kingdom  of  Belgium,  besides  much  which  has 
now  gone  to  France.  They  thus  were  vassals  at  once 
of  the  Emperor  and  of  the  King  of  France,  and  they 
weie  really  more  powerful  than  either  of  their  lords. 
For  their  position  as  a  border  power  gave  them  great 
advantages,  and  their  possession  of  the  great  cities  of 
the  Low  Countries,  turbulent  as  their  citizens  often 
were,  made  them  the  richest  princes  in  Europe.  Duke 
John  the  Fearless  was  murdered  by  the  Dauphin 
Charles,  afterwards  Charles  the  Seventh,  and  this 
threw  his  son  Duke  Philip  into  the  arms  of  the  Eng- 
lish. Philip  supported  the  English  in  France  for  a 
long  time,  and,  after  he  forsook  their  side  at  the  Treaty 
of  Arras  in  1435,  the  English  power  in  France  fell 
away  very  fast  Duke  Philip  reigned  very  prudently, 
and  increased  the  power  of  his  Duchy  in  every  way. 
But  under  his  son,  Charles  the  Bold,  his  great  power 
fell  to  pieces.  There  was  a  constant  rivalry  between 
him  and  Lewis  the  Eleventh.  He  also  kept  all  the 
world  in  alarm  by  endlessly  planning  one  scheme  after 
another,  and  by  annexing  such  of  the  territories  of  his 
neighbours  as  he  could  get  hold  of.  One  great  object 
of  his  was  to  annex  the  Duchy  of  Lorraine,  that  is  th» 


xii.]  THE  DUKES  OF  BURGUNDY.  223 

southern  part  of  the  old  Lotharingia,  the  capital  oi 
which  is  Nancy.  This  would  have  joined  his  domi- 
nions in  the  Netherlands  with  the  Duchy  and  County 
of  Burgundy.  But  he  also  dreamed  of  getting  Provence, 
and  of  making  himself  King  of  all  the  lands  which  had 
2ver  formed  part  of  any  of  the  old  Burgundian  and 
Lotharingian  kingdoms.  In  this  way  he  got  into  dis- 
putes with  the  cities  on  the  Rhine,  with  Duke  Siegmuna 
of  Austria,  and  lastly  with  the  Confederates.  And  the 
King  of  France,  of  course,  took  care  to  stir  up  all  his 
enemies  against  him.  A  war  now  followed  between 
Duke  Charles  and  the  Confederates,  which  was  carried 
on  in  the  dominions  of  the  Duke  of  Savoy  north  of  the 
Lake  of  Geneva.  Charles  was  overthrown  in  two  great 
battles  at  Granson  and  at  Murten  or  Morat  in  1476.  At 
last  he  was  defeated  and  killed  in  1477  in  a  third  battle 
at  Nancy,  whither  the  Confederates  had  gone  to  help 
Rene  Duke  of  Lorraine  to  win  back  his  Duchy  from 
Charles.  This  war  had  two  great  results.  The  great 
power  of  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  was  broken  up. 
Charles'  daughter  Mary  kept  his  dominions  in  the 
Low  Countries  and,  after  a  while,  got  back  the  County 
of  Burgundy.  But  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy  was  joined 
to  the  Crown  of  France,  and  the  scheme  of  a  great 
power  lying  between  Germany  and  France  came  to  an 
end.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great  victories  of  the 
Confederates  raised  their  reputation  to  the  highest 
pitch.  They  now  began  to  take  a  part  in  general 
European  affairs,  and  to  count  as  a  distinct  power. 
They  also  now  began  to  win  dominions  in  the  Romance- 
speaking  lands  to  the  west  and  south  of  them.  But 
then  successes  did  much  to  corrupt  them ;  the  Swiss, 
as  they  now  began  to  be  called,  were  such  good 
soldiers  that  all  the  princes  of  Europe,  especially  the 
Kings  of  France,  were  glad  to  have  them  in  their 
armies,  and  thus  began  the  practice  of  serving  for 
hire,  which  was  the  disgrace  of  the  Swiss  League  tiM 
quite  lately. 


224  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CMAF. 

14.  The  Eastern  Empire.  Rise  of  the  Otto- 
mans.— While  the  Western  Empire  was  quite  chang- 
ing its  character,  sinking  into  a  German  Kingdom,  or 
rather  into  a  Confederation  of  German  States,  the 
Eastern  Empire,  which  had  now  become  practically 
Greek,  came  to  an  end  altogether.  After  the  Greeks 
had  won  back  Constantinople  from  the  Latins  in 
1260,  their  dominion,  under  the  last  dynasty  of  the 
Palaiologoi,  was  but  a  shadow  of  the  old  Empire.  Yet, 
as  had  so  often  happened  before,  there  was  for  a  while 
a  time  of  revival,  and  the  Emperors  of  Constantinople, 
Emperors  of  the  Romans  as  they  still  called  themselves, 
were  able  to  join  on  to  their  dominions  many  of  the 
little  states,  joth  Greek  and  Frank,  which  had  sprung 
up  at  the  time  of  the  Latin  Conquest.  During  these 
last  days  of  the  Eastern  Empire  there  was  more  inter- 
course than  before  between  the  Greeks  and  the  Western 
nations,  especially  the  Venetians  and  Genoese.  And, 
whenever  the  Greeks  were  in  any  trouble,  their 
Emperors  always  made  a  show  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
division  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches. 
But  schemes  of  this  sort  never  really  took  root,  as 
the  Greeks  were  fully  determined  never  to  admit  the 
authority  of  the  Pope.  These  applications  for  Western 
help  were  commonly  made  when  the  Eastern  Emperors 
were  hard  pressed  by  an  enemy  which  seemed  likely 
to  swallow  up,  not  only  the  Eastern  Empire  but  ail 
Christendom.  These  were  the  Ottoman  Turks,  so 
railed  from  their  early  leader  Othman.  They  arose  in 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  being  first  heard 
of  about  1240.  This  branch  of  the  Turks  produced  a 
succession  of  greater  rulers  than  any  other  Eastern 
dynasty,  and  their  power  has  lasted  till  our  own  time. 
They  gradually  swallowed  up  the  provinces  of  the 
Empire  in  Asia,  and  most  of  the  other  powers,  Chris- 
tian and  Mahometan,  in  those  parts,  and  Turkish 
pirates  began  to  ravage  the  coasts  of  Europe.  Aboul 
1343  they  got  a  firmer  footing  in  Europe  during  some 


xii.]  THE  OTTOMAN  TURKS.  225 

of  the  dissensions  within  the  Empire,  and  they  were 
never  again  driven  out.  In  1361  their  Sultan  Morad 
or  Amurath  took  Hadrianople,  which  became  the 
Ottoman  capital  What  remained  of  the  Eastern 
Empire  was  now  altogether  hemmed  in  ;  all  was  lost, 
except  Constantinople  itself  and  a:  small  territory  round 
it,  and  some  outlying  possessions,  chiefly  in  Pelopon- 
n€sos.  Meanwhile  the  Turks  were  spreading  them- 
selves to  the  north,  and  were  overcoming  the  Slavonic 
lands  which  had  learned  their  Christianity  from  the 
Eastern  Empire,  Servia,  Bulgaria,  and  other  states  in 
those  parts.  This  brought  them  into  contact  with 
Hungary,  and  thus  led  to  wars  of  which  we  shall  speak 
presently.  The  successes  of  the  Turks  were  largely 
owing  to  their  taking  a  tribute  of  children  from  their 
Christian  subjects,  the  strongest  and  bravest  of  whom 
were  brought  up  as  soldiers,  and  formed  a  well-dis- 
ciplined body  of"  infantry  which  overcame  all  enemies. 
These  were  called  Janissaries  or  Neu>  Soldiers.  Dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Bajazet,  surnamed  the  Thunderbolt, 
•who  reigned  from  1389  to  1402,  things  seemed  as 
if  the  Eastern  Empire  and  all  the  Christian  states 
of  South-eastern  Europe  were  about  to  be  destroyed 
at  once.  But  they  gained  a  respite  in  a  strange 
way  from  the  appearance  of  a  new  Mahometan  power 
in  Asia. 

15.  Rise  of  Timour. — The  great  Mogul  Empire 
which  had  been  founded  by  Jenghiz  had  long  ago 
fallen  to  pieces  ;  but  dynasties  rising  out  of  it  reigned 
for  a  long  time  in  Persia,  and  for  a  still  longer  time 
held  Russia  in  bondage.  In  the  latter  half  of  the 
fourteenth  century  a  prince  called  Timour  arose  in 
Central  Asia,  whose  descendants  are  commonly  spoken 
of  as  the  Moguls,  but  who  seems  in  truth  to  have  been 
Turkish  rather  than  Mongolian.  He  was  a  Mahometan 
of  the  Shiah  sect,  those  who  hold  the  divine  right  of 
All  the  son-in-law  of  Mahomet,  and  who  look,  not 
only  on  all  the  Ommiad  and  Abbasside  Caliphs,  but 


226  THE  DECLINE  OP   THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAP 

on  the  first  three  Caliphs,  Abou  Bekr,  Omar,  and 
Othman,  as  usurpers.  They  had  always  existed  as  a 
religious  sect,  but  most  of  the  great  Mahometan 
nations  were  Sonnitcs  or  orthodox  Mahometans,  who 
look  on  all  the  first  four  Caliphs  as  lawful  successors  of 
Mahomet.  Timour  therefore  made  religious  zeal  an 
excuse  for  attacking  the  whole  world,  whether  Chris- 
tians, heathens,  or  such  Mahometans  as  he  looked  on 
as  heretics.  At  last  he  came  into  Western  Asia  to 
attack  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Bajazet,  whom  in  his  letters 
he  addressed  as  the  Casar  of  Rome.  Bajazet  was  utterly 
defeated  and  taken  prisoner  in  the  battle  of  Angora  in 
1402  ;  but  Timour  never  crossed  into  Europe.  He 
died  in  1405,  and  his  great  dominion,  like  other  great 
dominions  of  the  kind,  broke  in  pieces. 

1 6.  The  Fall  of  Constantinople — The  little 
that  was  left  of  the  Eastern  Empire  got  a  breathing  space 
through  the  overthrow  of  Bajazet  by  Timour.  A  civil 
war  arose  among  his  sons,  and  the  Ottoman  monarchy 
was  not  again  united  till  1421  under  Sultan  Amurath 
the  Second.  He  besieged  Constantinople  in  1422,  but 
the  Empire  still  dragged  on  a  feeble  existence  till  the 
accession  of  his  son  Mahomet  the  Second,  called  the 
Conqueror,  in  1451.  All  the  Ottoman  Sultans  hitherto 
had  been  great  warriors,  and,  according  to  the  Eastern 
standard,  wise  rulers.  Mahomet  was  perhaps  the 
greatest  of  them  all.  He  presently  besieged  Constan- 
tinople :  the  last  Emperor  of  the  East,  Constantine 
Palaiologos,  made  another  of  those  reconciliations  with 
the  Western  Church  of  which  we  have  already  heard ; 
but  he  gained  no  real  help  from  the  West  except  a  few 
volunteers,  who  came  chiefly  from  Venice  and  Genoa. 
The  great  siege  of  Constantinople  began,  one  of  the 
first  great  sieges  in  which  cannon,  which  had  been 
gradually  coming  into  use  in  war  for  about  a  hundred 
years,  played  a  great  part.  The  Emperor  did  all  that 
man  could  do  in  such  a  strait,  but  at  last,  on  May  the 
agth,  1453  Constantinople  was  taken  by  storm.  Con- 


xn.]  FALL  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  227 

stantine  died  sword  in  hand,  and  the  Roman  Empire 
of  the  East  came  to  an  end.  Constantinople  now 
became  the  capital  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  Jus- 
tinian's great  church  of  Saint  Sophia  became  a  Maho- 
metan mosque.  In  a  few  years  Mahomet  conquered 
Peloponnesos  and  the  greater  part  of  Greece,  and  in 
1461  he  conquered  the  Greek  Empire  of  Trebizond, 
which  thus  outlived  that  of  Constantinople.  He  had 
thus  got  possession  of  nearly  the  whole  mainland 
which  had  belonged  to  the  Eastern  Empire  at  any 
time  since  the  first  Saracen  conquest.  But  the  Vene- 
tians still  kept  several  points  on  the  mainland,  besides 
Crete  and  Corfu  and  some  smaller  islands.  Some  of 
the  other  islands  were  still  kept  by  Latin  princes,  and 
Rhodes  was  held  by  the  Knights  of  Saint  John.  Cyprus 
too  remained  a  Latin  kingdom,  though  before  long 
the  Venetians  gained  that  also.  Mahomet  went  on  to 
plan  the  invasion  of  Western  Europe,  and  the  Turks 
actually  took  Otranto  in  Southern  Italy  ;  but  the  West 
was  delivered  by  the  death  of  Mahomet  in  1481,  for 
his  successor  Bajazet  the  Second  was  not  a  conqueror 
like  his  father. 

17.  The  Spanish  Kingdoms. — The  two  ends  of 
Europe,  the  Scandinavian  and  the  Spanish  penin- 
sulas, played  a  less  important  part  in  general  history 
during  this  time  than  they  did  either  before  or  after. 
Their  history  is  chiefly  confined  to  dealings  within 
their  own  bounds.  In  Spain  the  Saracens  or  Moors 
were  now  shut  up  in  the  one  kingdom  of  Granada,  and, 
though  there  were  often  wars  between  them  and  their 
neighbours  of  Castile,  yet  the  Spanish  history  of  this 
time  is  much  more  taken  up  with  wars  and  disputes 
among  the  several  Christian  kingdoms.  The  history 
of  Castile  is  connected  with,  that  of  England,  because 
the  Black  Prince,  Edward,  Prince  of  Wales  and  Aqui- 
taine,  was  persuaded  in  1366  to  lead  an  army  into 
Spain  to  restore  King  Pedro  or  Peter,  surnamed  the 
Crue?t  who  had  been  driven  out  by  his  brothei 


228  THE  DECLINE  OS  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAP 

Henry  of  Trastamara.  In  this  war  Edward  won  his 
third  great  battle  of  Najara  or  Navarete,  and  restored 
Peter,  who  was  however  before  long  killed  by  Henry. 
Aragon  again  was  closely  connected  with  the  Two 
Sicilies.  The  island  kingdom  was  united  to  Aragon 
in  1409,  and  Alfonso  the  Fifth,  who  was  King  from 
1416  to  1458,  was,  during  part  of  that  time,  in  posses- 
sion of  Naples.  But,  as  he  was  succeeded  in  Naples 
by  his  natural  son  Ferdinand  and  in  Aragon  by  his 
brother  John,  the  two  kingdoms  were  again  separated 
for  a  while,  and  the  crown  of  Naples  was  all  the  while 
disputed  by  the  Angevin  princes.  At  one  time,  in 
1467,  the  war  was  carried  into  Spain  by  John,  Duke 
of  Calabria,  son  of  Rene,  Count  of  Provence  and.  Duke 
of  Anjou,  who  called  himself  King  of  Sicily.  This  John 
came  to  help  the  Catalans,  who  were  in  revolt  against 
John  of  Aragon.  John  had  also  wars  with  Lewis  of 
France  for  the  possession  of  the  border  county  of 
Roussillon,  which  changed  hands  several  times  between 
the  two  crowns.  Portugal  meanwhile  was  doing  great 
things.  Under  John  the  Great,  who  reigned  from 
1385  to  1433,  the  Portuguese  began  to  take  revenge  for 
the  long  possession  of  Spain  by  the  Saracens  of  Africa 
by  conquests  in  Africa  itself.  And  at  the  same  time, 
under  the  Infant  or  prince  Don  Henry,  they  began 
a  course  of  navigation  and  discovery  along  the  western 
coast  of  Africa  and  among  the  islands  of  the  Atlantic, 
which  went  on  during  the  whole  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. At  last  the  great  discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  in  1486  opened  for  Portugal  a  yet  wider 
dominion  in  India  and  other  parts  of  the  East.  In 
this  work  of  exploring,  conquering,  and  colonizing 
distant  parts  of  the  world,  other  nations  soon  followed, 
but :!:  was  the  Portuguese  who  first  showed  the  way. 
Meanwhile  a  change  took  place  in  the  Spanish  penin- 
sula, which  led  to  great  changes  in  Europe  generally. 
This  came  about  through  the  marriage  in  1471  of 
Isabella  Queen  of  Castile  with  Ferdinand  the  Infant  oj 


xii.]  NORTHERN  EUROPE.  22* 

Aragon,  who  soon  after  succeeded  to  tne  Aragonesc 
crown.  The  Crowns  of  Aragon  and  Castile  were  ever 
afterwards,  except  for  a  very  short  time,  held  together. 
In  1481  the  Catholic  Kings,  as  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
\vere  called,  began  a  war  with  Granada,  whose  King 
had  invaded  the  Castilian  territory.  In  1492  they 
took  Granada  itself  and  united  the  kingdom  to  Castile. 
The  Mahometan  dominion  in  Spain,  which  had  lasted 
through  so  many  ages,  was  now  at  an  end,  and  the 
recovery  of  Granada  might  almost  seem  to  make  up 
in  Christendom  for  the  loss  of  Constantinople  at  the 
other  end  of  Europe.  Spain,  as  the  united  dominions 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were  commonly  called,  soon 
became  the  greatest  power  in  Europe. 

18.  Northern  Europe. — In  the  Scandinavian 
peninsulas,  the  power  of  Denmark  gradually  sank  in 
the  course  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  fourteenth,  in  1397,  the  three  kingdoms 
were  united  by  the  famous  Union  of  Calmar,  under 
Margaret  Queen  of  Nonvay  and  daughter  of  Waldemar 
the  Third  King  of  Denmark.  This  union,  with  some 
interruptions,  went  on  through  the  fifteenth  century. 
In  1448,  under  Christian  the  First,  the  House  of 
Oldenburg  began  to  reign,  which  has  gone  on  in 
Denmark  till  our  own  time,  and  which  held  Norway 
also  within  the  present  century.  During  all  this  time 
the  Northern  kingdoms  had  many  wars  with  the  League 
of  the  Hanse  Towns,  and  the  shifting  relations  began 
between  the  Kings  of  Denmark  and  the  Duchies  of 
Sleswick  and  Holstein  which  have  gone  on  till  our  own 
days,  Sleswick,  the  land  north  of  the  Eyder,  was  the 
southern  part  of  Denmark,  which  had  become  a 
separate  Duchy,  but  which  was  not  a  fief  of  the  Em- 
pire. Its  people  were  partly  Danish  and  partly  Low- 
Dutch.  Holstein,  on  the  other  hand,  that  part  of 
Saxony  which  lay  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Eyder, 
always  was  a  fief  of  the  Empire,  and  its  people  were 
wholly  Low-Dutch. 


230  THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.       [CHAIV 

19.  Russia  and  Poland.  — Great  changes  took 
place  in  the  lands  to  the  east  of  the  Baltic  during  this 
period.     The  Lithuanians,  the  last  Aryan  people  in 
Europe  to  accept  Christianity,  were  converted  towards 
the   end   of  the   fourteenth   century.      Their    Duke 
fagdlon  married  Hedwig  Queen   of  Poland  in   1386, 
and  was  baptized  and  brought  about  the  conversion  of 
his  people.     He  was  the  founder  of  the  dynasty  of 
Kings  of    Poland  of  the  house   of  Jagellon.      The 
union  of  Poland  and  Lithuania  under  one  sovereign 
formed  one  of  the  greatest  states  in   Europe.     The 
dominions  of  the  Jagellons  stretched  far  to  the  east 
and  south,  taking  in  a  large  part  of  Russia  and  reach- 
ing to  the  new  conquests  of  the  Ottoman  Turks.-  And 
in  1466  Casimir  the  Fourth  finally  got  the  better  of 
the  Teutonic  Knights,  annexing  the  western  part  of 
Prussia  to  Poland,  and   so  cutting  Prussia  off  from 
Germany.     Russia  meanwhile,  while  cut  short  by  the 
Poles  and  Lithuanians  to  the  west,  was  held  in  bond- 
age by  the  Moguls  to  the  east.     But,  after  Moscow 
became  the  capital  in  1328,  Russia  began  to  recover 
itself  somewhat,  and  at  last,  in  1477,  Ivan   Vasilovitz 
completely  freed  the  country  from  the  Mogul  supre- 
macy.    Still  Russia  was  altogether  hemmed  in,  and  it 
had  no  means  of  taking  any  part  in  European  affairs 
for  some  time  to  come. 

20.  Hungary    and    the    Turks.  —  Meanwhile 
Hungary  shifted  about  from  one  dynasty  to  another. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  Hun- 
garian crown  passed  by  marriage  into  a  branch  of  the 
Angevin  house  of  Sicily.     The  greatest  King  of  this 
line  was  Lewis,  who  reigned  from  1342  to  1382,  and 
who  was  also  King  of  Poland.     He  was  the  father  of 
Hedwig   who   married    Jagellon.      Her   sister  Mary 
married  Siegmund,  who  was  afterwards  Emperor,  and 
who  also  became  King  of    Hungary.      In    his  time 
the  Turks  became  dangerous  to  Hungary,  and  both 
Hungary  and  Poland  soon  became  special  bulwarks  of 


Hi.]  POLAND  AND  HUNGARY.  2;^ 

Christendom  by  land,  as  the  commonwealth  of  Venice 
was  by  sea.  In  1396  King  Siegmund  and  a  large 
body  of  Western  allies  were  overthrown  by  Sultan 
Eajazet  at  Nikopolis.  In  the  next  century  a  famous 
captain,  John  Huniades,  Waiwode  or  prince  of  Trans* 
silvania,  greatly  distinguished  himself  against  the 
Turks ;  but  in  1444  Wladislaus  the  son  of  Jagellon, 
who  was  King  both  of  Hungary  and  Poland,  after 
driving  back  Sultan  Amurath  for  a  while,  was  defeated 
and  slain  by  him  at  Vartta.  After  this  John  Huniades 
was  regent,  and  in  14*56  he  drove  back  Sultan 
Mahomet  from  Belgrade.  His  son  Matthias  Corvinus 
was  King  from  1458  to  1490.  He  did  much  to 
civilize  his  kingdom,  and  valiantly  kept  off  the  Turks, 
while  on  the  other  side  he  won  great  victories  over 
the  House  of  Austria,  who  were  striving  to  get  the 
kingdom  of  Hungary  into  their  own  hands. 

21.  Language,  Science,  and  Art. — The  pro- 
gress of  learning  has  been  already  spoken  of  with 
regard  to  Italy,  as  it  was  there  that  it  had  most  effect 
on  the  political  history  of  the  country.  But  men's 
minds  were  at  work  in  other  parts  of  the  world  also. 
Men  were  eager  after  knowledge  in  many  ways. 
Many  of  the  Universities  in  different  countries  were 
now  of  great  importance,  and  in  England  Colleges 
began  to  be  founded  in  them.  History  was  in  most 
countries  still  written  in  Latin.  In  the  thirteenth 
century  there  were  good  writers  of  history  in  Eng- 
land, especially  Matthew  Paris,  who  spoke  out  boldly 
against  both  the  Pope  and  the  King.  But  in  England 
the  writing  of  history  went  down  a  good  deal  in  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  There  was,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  series  of  historical  writers  in  French 
from  the  thirteenth  century  onwards,  and  in  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  we  learn  much  about  the  different 
stages  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War  from  the  French- 
speaking  writers  frriuartand  Monstrelet.  In  England 
the  English  tongue  had  in  the  fourteenth  century. again 


232  TlfE  DECLINE  OF  THE  EMPIRE.      [CHA* 

quite  driven  French  out  of  use,  except  for  some  legal 
and  formal  purposes.  And  now  lived  such  poets  aj 
Geoffrey  Chauter,  whose  works  did  much  towards  fixing 
the  standard  of  the  English  language.  There  were 
many  divines  and  thinkers  in  various  ways,  some  of 
whom,  as  we  have  already  seen,  began,  especially  in 
England  and  in  Bohemia,  to  teach  doctrines  different 
from  those  which  were  commonly  received  in  the 
Church.  And  the  general  stirring  of  men's  minds  led 
some  into  speculations  about  the  natural  equality  of 
mankind  which  led  to  revolts  of  the  peasants  both  in 
France  and  England  in  the  course  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  The  people  called  Lollards  in  England,  the 
followers  of  Wickliffe,  often  mixed  up  the  religious 
and  the  social  movement  together.  But  in  England 
villainage  was  on  the  whole  dying  out,  while  in  many 
other  countries  it  was  getting  harder  and  harder.  In 
war,  up  to  the  invention  of  gunpowder,  the  knights  and 
gentlemen  who  fought  on  horseback  still  despised  all 
other  troops,  though  the  Scots,  the  Swiss,  the  Flemings 
at  Courtray,  and  the  English  archers  at  Crecy,  all 
showed  what  a  good  infantry  could  do.  These  cen- 
turies also,  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth, 
were  the  ages  when  architecture  reached  its  height  in 
Europe,  and  when  the  finest  churches  and  castles  were 
built.  But  it  was  only  towards  the  end  of  this  period, 
as  times  grew  quieter  and  law  grew  stronger,  that  we 
find  many  great  houses  strictly  so  called,  except  within 
the  walls  of  the  cities. 

22.  Summary. — During  this  time  then  the  Em- 
pire of  the  West  dwindled  into  insignificance,  and  the 
Empire  of  the  East  was  destroyed  altogether.  A  great 
Mahometan  power  was  settled  in  the  East  of  Europe, 
while  the  last  Mahometan  kingdom  was  overthrown  in 
the  West  Spain  became  a  great  power.  In  ftaly 
learning  revived,  but  the  freedom  of  the  cities  was  in 
most  cases  destroyed,  and  the  corruptions  of  the 
fopedom  grew  greater  and  greater.  England  ax\<\  Fratici 


xn.j  SUMMARY.  233 

waged  a  long  war,  in  which  France  was  nearly  con- 
quered, but  she  gained  in  the  end,  and  won  a  large 
increase  of  territory  both  from  England  and  from 
other  powers.  The  Swiss  League  and  the  Duchy  0} 
Burgundy  became  important  powers,  but  the  advance 
of  the  latter  was  cut  short.  The  three  Scandinavian 
kingdoms  were  united,  though  not  very  firmly.  Poland 
became  a  great  power,  and  Russia  laid  the  foundation 
of  her  greatness  by  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  the 
Moguls.  The  defence  of  Christendom  against  the 
Turks,  though  endlessly  talked  about  by  Popes  and 
Emperors,  really  fell  in  the  main  on  Poland,  Hungary, 
and  Venice. 


214  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CHAP. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE   GREATNESS   OF    SPAIN. 

Characteristics  of  modern  Europe ;  formation  of  tht 
existing  powers  and  nations  (i)— progress  of  arts 
and  inventions ;  falling  back  of  political  freedom 
(i) — increase  of  the  royal  power;  introduction  oj 
standing  armies  (i) — all  Western  Europe  now 
Christian  (2) — chief  causes  of  the  Reformation  of 
Religion;  practical  abuses;  the  po-wer  of  the  Popes ; 
disputes  on  points  of  Mixology  (2) — different  forms 
taken  by  the  Reformation  in  different  cvuutries  ;  the 
Reformation,  as  a  rule,  accepted  by  the  Teutonic 
nations  and  refused  by  the  Romance  (3) — no  real 
toleration  on  either  side  (3) — names  given  to  the 
different  parties  (3) — growth  of  the  power  of  Spain  ; 
acquisition  of  various  kingdoms  by  conquest  and 
marriage  (4) — succession  of  Charles  the  First  of 
Spain;  his  e-lection  as  the  Emperor  Charles  the 
Fifth;  the  Austrian  Kings  in  Spain  (4) — reign  of 
Philip  the  Second;  annexation  of  Portugal  (5) — 
reigns  of  Philip  the  Third  and  Fourth;  wars  with 
France  and  toss  of  territory ;  persecution  and  expul- 
sion of  the  Moriscos  (5) — rivalry  of  France  and  Spain 
in  Italy  (6) — conquest  of  Naples  by  Charles  the 
Eighth  (6)— conquest  of  Milan  by  Lewis  the  Twelfth, 
and  of  Naples  by  Ferdinand  (7) — League  of  Cambray 
against  Venice;  the  Holy  League;  restoration  of 
the  Medici  at  Florence  (7) — rivalry  of  Charles  and 
Francis ;  battle  of  Marignano  ;  captivity  of  Francis 
At  Pavia  (8) — sack  of  Rome;  peace  between  Char  Us 


Kill.]  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.  235 

and  Francis  j  coronation  of  Charles  (8) — dominion  of 
Charles  throughoitt  Italy ;  subjugation  of  Florence 
(9) — Wars  of  Venice  -with  the  Turks ;  loss  of  Cyprus f 
battle  of  Lepanto  (9) — the  Popes ;  their  purely  -worldly 
policy  at  the  beginning  of  the  period  (10) — improve- 
ment  under  the  later  Popes ;  Council  of  Trent; 
foundation  of  the  Jesuits  (10) — reign  of  Maximilian 
(n) — the  Emperors  after  Charles  the  Fifth;  the 
Empire  becomes  purely  German  (n) — beginning  of 
the  Reformation  in  Germany  ;  preachmg  of  Luther 
(12) — religious  wars  and  persecutions  ;  invasion  of 
the  Turks  (12) — groivth  of  France  j  annexation  of 
Brittany  (13) — reign  of  Francis  the  First;  Henry 
of  England  takes  Boulogne  (13) — reign  of  Henry  the 
Second;  seizure  of  the  Theee  Bishoprics ;  Peace  oj 
CAteau-Cambresis  (13) — tlie  Reformation  in  France  ; 
teaching  of  Calvin  (14) — persecutions  and  civil  wars 
in  France  ;  reign  of  Henry  the  Fourth  (14) — revolt 
of  the  Netherlands  against  Spain;  William  the  Silent 
(15)— -formation  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  Pro- 
vinces (16) — growth  of  the  Swiss  Confederation  ;  the 
Reformation  under  Zwingliand Farel(if} — conquests 
of  Bern  from  Savoy  ;  Savoy  loses  in  Burgundy  and 
gains  in  Italy  (17) — civil  wars  in  England  ;  reign 
of  Henry  the  Eighth  (17) — the  Reformation  in 
England;  Henry  throws  off  the  Papal  power; 
religious  changes  under  Edward  (18)— restoration  of 
the  Pope's  power  under  Mary;  final  settlement  under 
Elizabeth  (18) — relations  between  England  and  Scot- 
land; reign  of  Mary  in  Scotland  ( 1 9) — war  between 
Elizabeth  and  Philip  (19)— union  of  England  and 
Scotland  under  James ;  civil  wars  of  England  (19) 
— -final  separation  of  Denmark  and  Sweden  under 
\  Gustavus  Vasa  (20) — the  Reformation  in  Denmark 
and  Sweden  ;  advance  of  Sweden  under  Gustavus 
Adolphus  (20) — greatness  of  Poland  ;  humiliation  cj- 
the  Teutonic  Order ;  foundation  of  the  Duchy  of 
Prussia;  its  union  with  Brandenburg  (21) — disputes 
about  Livonia  (21)— groivth  of  Russia;  accession  of 


*36  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPA  Iff.  [CHA*. 

the  house  of  Romanoff ;  the  Polish  crown  becomes 
Purely  elective  (21) — beginning  of  the  modern  kingdom 
of  Persia  (22) — reigns  of  Selim  the  Inflexible  and 
Suleiman  the  Lawgiver ;  Turkish  conquests  in 
Hungiry  (22)— conquest  of  Cyprus  and  battle  of 
Lepanto  (22) — disputes  in  Bohemia  ;  t/ie  Elector 
Palatine  chosen  King ;  beginning  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  (23) — career  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  (23} 
— interference  and  advance  of  France  (23) — Peace  of 
Westphalia;  degradation  of  the  Empire;  acquisitions 
of  Sweden  and  France  (24) — continued  war  between 
France  and  Spain;  Peace  of  the  Pyrenees  (24) — 
European  colonies  and  settlements  ;  different  kind* 
of  settlements  (25) — Portuguese  settlements  in  Africa 
and  India  (25) — discovery  of  America  (26) — Spanish 
settlements  in  America  (27) — French,  English,  and 
Dutch  settlements  in  America  (28) — progress  o) 
learning,  art,  and  science  ;  use  of  the  national 
languages  (29)— Summary  (30). 

i.  Characteristics  of  Modern  Europe — We 
are  now  gradually  passing  into  a  new  state  of  things. 
Nearly  ah  the  nations  and  powers  of  Europe  which 
now  remain  have  been  already  formed  \  the  indepen- 
dent states  are  fewer  and  larger  than  before,  and 
things  are  beginning  to  be  in  many  ways  more  like 
what  they  are  now  than  they  have  been  hitherto.  The 
great  advance  of  learning  and  science  in  the  fifteenth 
century  altogether  changed  the  face  of  the  world,  and 
three  great  inventions,  printing,  gunpowder,  and  the 
mariner's  compass,  were  now  fully  in  use  and  gave  a 
wholly  new  character  to  all  matters  both  of  war  and 
peace.  The  general  stirring  of  men's  minds,  and  the 
spirit  of  thought  and  enterprise  which  began  to  be 
abroad,  took  various  forms.  It  led  to  the  great 
changes  in  religion  which  are  spoken  of  as  the  Re- 
formation, and  it  led  to  the  discovery  of  new  lands 
beyond  the  sea,  and  to  the  establishment  of  colonies 
by  the  chief  European  nations  in  distant  parts  of  the 


Xlii.]  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MODERN  EUROPE.  237 

world.  In  all  matters  of  intellectual  progress,  and  in 
all  the  arts  of  ordinary  life,  the  time  to  which  we  have 
now  come  is  a  time  of  wonderful  advance.  But,  for  a 
Jong  time  after  the  beginning  of  what  we  may  call 
modern  history,  political  freedom  did  not  go  forward, 
but  rather  fell  back.  It  was  a  time  of  much  deeper 
and  more  far-seeing  policy  than  earlier  times,  and  it 
was  a  time  when  governments  grew  stronger,  when 
laws  could  be  more  regularly  carried  out,  and  when 
much  of  the  turbulence  and  disorder  of  earlier  times 
came  to  aft  end.  But  it  was  also  a  time  when,  in  most 
parts  of  Europe,  Kings  contrived  to  get  all  power  into 
their  own  hands ;  it  was  a  time  of  wars  which  Kings 
waged  for  their  own  purposes,  and  in  which  the 
nations  which  they  governed  had  very  little  interest. 
To  wage  these  wars  they  had  to  keep  standing  armies, 
that  is,  armies  of  soldiers  who  are  always  under  arms 
and  who  always  receive  pay.  A  standing  army  need 
not  be  an  army  of  mere  mercenaries,  like  those  which 
served  in  Italy  for  any  prince  or  commonwealth  that 
would  hire  them.  Still,  where  there  are  standing  armies, 
things  are  very  different  from  what  they  are  when  a  lord 
calls  on  his  vassals,  or  when  a  commonwealth  calls  on 
its  citizens,  to  fight  when  they  are  wanted  to  fight  and 
then  to  go  home  again.  A  standing  army  makes  the 
government  which  employs  it  far  stronger  ;  and  it  was 
by  means  of  these  standing  armies  that  the  Kings  in 
most  parts  of  Europe  were  able  to  overthrow  those  free 
institutions  of  earlier  times  which  many  countries  have 
only  quite  lately  won  back  again.  But  the  main  outward 
difference  between  these  times  and  the  times  that  went 
before  them  is  that  the  old  ideas  of  the  Church  and 
the  Empire  now  passed  away  for  ever.  The  Eastern 
Empire  was  gone ;  the  Western  Empire  survived  in 
name  only.  The  Emperors  were  ofcen  very  powerful 
princes,  but  it  was  not  by  reason  of  their  being  Em- 
perors that  they  were  so.  We  have  now  very  largely  to 
deal,  not  so  much  with  nations,  or  even  with  particular 


238  THE  GREA  TNE^S  OF  SPA/A  [CHAI-, 

states,  as  with  collections  of  states  and  nations  in  th« 
hands  of  particular  families.  And  we  now  come  to 
that  great  revolution  in  religion  by  which  the  Churches 
of  Western  Europe  have  ever  since  been  still  more 
widely  divided  among  themselves  than  in  former  times 
the  whole  Western  Church  was  from  the  Eastern. 
The  Eastern  Church  meanwhile  remained  for  a  long 
time  as  it  were  hidden,  as  most  of  the  nations  which 
belonged  to  it  were  in  bondage  to  the  Turks.  It  is 
only  in  later  times  that  the  Eastern  Church  has  again 
become  politically  important,  as  being  the  religion  of 
the  great  Empire  of  Russia. 

2.  Causes  of  the  Reformation. — At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century  we  may  say  that  the 
whole  of  Western  Europe  was  in  communion  with  the 
Western  Church.  And,  though  all  men  did  not  think 
exactly  alike  as  to  the  authority  of  the  Pope  or  Bishop  of 
Rome,  yet  all  looked  on  him  as  being  at  least  the  head 
Bishop  of  the  whole  Church.  There  was  no  nation  in 
the  West  which  was  not  Christian.  The  Lithuanians 
had  been  converted,  and  the  Moors  in  Spain  had  been 
conquered.  If  there  were  any  heathens  left  anywhere, 
it  would  be  a. few  Laps  in  the  extreme  North.  Nor 
was  there  any  Christian  nation  in  the  West  which 
refused  submission  to  the  See  of  Rome.  The  Albi- 
genses  had  been  put  down  long  ago,  and  the  revolt  of 
the  followers  of  John  Huss  in  Bohemia  had,  after 
much  hard  fighting,  been  put  down  also.  There  had 
all  along  been  religious  discontents  among  particular 
men,  and  both  in  England  and  elsewhere  many  men 
had  been  burned  as  heretics.  Still  no  whole  nation 
had  as  yet  set  up  any  new  ecclesiastical  system  for 
itself.  But  early  in  the  sixteenth  century  there  began 
to  be  a  much  greater  stir  about  religious  matters  in 
most  parts  of  Western  Europe.  This  was  owing, 
partly  to  the  general  stir  in  men's  minds  caused  by  the 
revival  of  learning,  and  partly  to  the  exceeding 
wickedness  of  the  Popes  of  those  times.  There  were 


Bin.]         CAUSES  OF  THE  REFORMATION.  2.« 

three  things  at  which  men  were  specially  offended. 
First  there  were  many  practical  abuses  in  the  Church 
which  could  have  been  done  away  with  without  either 
casting  off  the  authority  of  the  Pope  or  making  any 
changes  in  doctrine.  Many  of  these  things  the  Coun- 
cils of  the  fifteenth  century,  at  Constanz,  Basel,  and 
elsewhere,  honestly  tried  to  mend;  but  the  Popes 
always  stood  in  the  way.  The  Popes  themselves  in 
after  days  tried  to  mend  many  things,  but  not  till  it 
was  too  late.  Secondly,  the  authority  of  the  Popes 
was  itself  felt  to  be  a  great  grievance,  partly  because  it 
was  often  so  badly  used,  but  also  because,  even  when 
it  was  well  used,  it  interfered  with  the  rights  both  of 
civil  governors  and  of  national  Churches.  The  truth 
is  that  the  power  of  the  Bishops  of  Rome  had  grown 
up  from  the  same  causes  as  the  power  of  the  Emperors 
of  Rome,  that  is,  because  Rome  was  the  head  city  of 
the  world.  And  now  men  were  beginning  to  be  dis- 
contented with  the  power  of  the  Popes  through  the 
same  causes  which  had  made  the  power  of  the  Em- 
perors die  away.  That  is  to  say,  Christendom  was 
split  up  into  separate  nations  and  kingdoms,  and  Rome 
no  longer  kept  its  place  as  the  centre  of  all.  But,  as 
the  power  of  the  Popes  was  held  to  be  a  matter  of 
religious  belief,  it  was  not  so  easy  to  get  rid  of  it  as  it 
was  to  get  rid  of  the  power  of  the  Emperors.  Lastly, 
besides  all  this,  many  men  held  that  not  a  few  of  the 
doctrines  which  were  believed,  and  of  the  ceremonies 
which  were  practised,  in  the  Church  were  wrong  in 
themselves,  and  had  no  ground  in  Scripture  or  in  the 
practice  of  the  first  Christians.  Disputes  arose  about 
the  Mass  or  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  about 
the  use  of  images  and  the  practice  of  praying  to 
saints,  about  the  state  of  men  after  death,  about  the 
necessity  of  confessing  sins  to  a  priest,  about  the  laws 
which  forbade  the  clergy  to  marry,  and  about  the 
practice  of  saying  the  Church  service  in  Latin  now 
that  Latin  was  nowhere  the  tongue  commonly  under 


a4o  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAM.  [CHA* 

stood.  Some  of  these  disputes  were  about  pointi 
\vhich  the  Popes  might  have  yielded  without  giving  up 
their  general  system,  and  which  indeed  they  have 
sometimes  yielded  in  distant  parts  of  the  world.  Bui 
others  were  about  points  of  doctrine  strictly  so  called, 
which  those  who  held  the  received  belief  to  be  true 
could  not  give  up  so  easily.  Thus  the  early  part  of 
the  sixteenth  century  was  a  time,  above  all  others,  of 
religious  controversies,  and  these  controversies  led  to 
the  most  important  events,  both  religious  and  political. 
3.  The  Reformation  in  different  Countries. 
— The  end  of  all  these  disputes  was  that  a  large  part 
of  Western  Europe  gradually  became  separated  from 
the  communion  of  the  See  of  Rome.  This  gradual 
change  is  commonly  called  the  Reformation.  And,  as 
in  old  times,  Christianity  took  different  forms  in  the 
Latin,  the  Greek,  and  the  Eastern  provinces  of  the 
Empire,  so  nearly  the  same  thing  happened  now. 
Allowing  for  a  good  many  exceptions,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  Teutonic  nations  accepted  the  new  teaching, 
while  the  Romance  nations  clave  to  the  See  of  Rome. 
And  there  were  great  differences  in  the  way  in  which 
the  Reformation  arose  and  was  carried  out  in  different 
countries.  In  some  countries  the  change  arose  among 
the  people  and  was  rather  forced  upon  the  govern- 
ments, while  in  others  it  was  chiefly  the  work  of  Kings 
and  rulers.  And  change  went  much  further  in  some 
countries  than  in  others.  In  some  countries  quite  new 
forms  of  worship  and  Church  government  were  set  up, 
while  in  others  men  cast  off  the  authority  of  the  Pope 
and  changed  what  they  thought  wrong  in  doctrine  and 
practice,  but  let  the  general  order  of  the  Church  go 
on  much  as  it  did  before.  The  extremes  each  way 
might  be  seen  in  England;  for,  of  all  the  countriei 
which  made  any  reformation  at  all,  England  changed 
the  least  and  Scotland  the  most.  And  in  Ireland 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  have  always  with- 
stood all  change,  partly  tio  doubt  because  their 


Kin.]  THE  REFORMATION.  24! 

English  rulers  tried  to  force  it  upon  them.  And, 
though  the  stirring  of  men's  minds,  and  the  habit  of 
thinking  for  themselves  which  led  to  the  Reformation, 
did  in  the  end  lead  men  in  most  countries  to  see 
that  they  ought  not  to  persecute  each  other  for  differ- 
ences in  religion,  yet  they  did  not  find  this  out  for  a 
long  time.  For  a  long  time  men  on  both  sides  held 
it  to  be  a  crime  to  allow  any  kind  of  worship  except 
that  which  they  themselves  thought  right  Thus  the 
Reformation  gave  rise  to  civil  wars  wherever  the  two 
parties  were  nearly  equally  balanced,  and  to  persecu- 
tions wherever  one  side  was  much  stronger  than  the 
other.  Those  who  clave  to  the  old  teaching  thought 
it  their  duty  to  hinder  the  spread  of  the  new,  and  those 
who  adopted  the  new  teaching  thought  it  their  duty  to 
hinder  the  practice  of  the  old.  It  was  only  in  a  few- 
cases,  where  neither  side  was  strong  enough  to  do 
much  mischief  to  the  other,  that  the  old  and  new 
worship  went  on  for  any  time  side  by  side.  Those 
who  accepted  the  Reformation  were  commonly  called 
Protestant  or  Reformed,  two  names  which  at  first  had 
different  meanings,  but  which  are  now  commonly  used 
without  much  distinction.  Those  who  clave  to  the 
Popes  called  themselves  Catholics,  as  claiming  to  be 
the  whole  and  only  true  Church.  The  other  side 
called  them  in  contempt  Papists  and  Romanists. 
Perhaps  it  is  safest  to  use  the  name  Roman  Catholics, 
a  name  which  is  not  very  consistent  with  itself,  but 
which  avoids  disputes  either  way,  and  which  in  Eng- 
land is  the  name  known  to  the  law. 

4.  Growth  of  the  power  of  Spain  in  Eu- 
rope. Charles  the  Fifth. — From  the  latter  part 
of  the  fifteenth  century  onwards  the  power  of  Spain 
grew  fast,  and  during  the  greater  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century  we  may  fairly  call  it  the  greatest  power  in 
Europe.  The  marriage  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  had 
united  Aragon  and  Castile ;  they  had  conquered 
Granada,  and,  after  Isabella's  death  in  1504,  Ferdinand, 


24«  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CHAP. 

in  1512,  conquered  nearly  all  the  Kingdom  o» 
Navarre,  that  is  all  south  of  the  Pyrenees.  The 
whole  peninsula,  except  Portugal,  was  thus  joined 
together.  Ferdinand  also  held  Sardinia  and  the  island 
of  Sicily,  and  in  1501,  by  wars  which  we  must  speak 
of  presently,  he  also  got  possession  of  the  continental 
kingdom  of  Naples.  Isabella  was  succeeded  in  Cas- 
tile by  her  daughter  Joanna,  who  had  married  Philip 
cf  Austria.  He  was  the  son  of  Mary  of  Burgundy 
the  daughter  of  Charles  the  Bold,  and  of  Maximilian 
the  son  of  the  Emperor  Frederick,  who  was  chosen 
King  of  the  Romans  in  his  father's  lifetime.  Each 
chain  in  this  pedigree  ought  to  be  remembered,  be- 
cause each  marriage  brought  with  it  some  fresh  domi- 
nion, and  so  helped  to  build  up  the  great  fabric  of  the 
Spanish  power.  Mary,  after  her  father's  death,  kept 
the  Low  Countries  and  the  County  of  Burgundy,  while 
Lewis  of  France  seized  the  Duchy.  Her  son  Philip 
was  thus  sovereign  of  the  Low  Countries.  By  his 
marriage  with  Joanna  came  the  strange  union  of  those 
distant  provinces  with  the  kingdoms  of  Castile  and 
Aragon.  Thus  Charles,  the  son  of  Philip  and  Joanna, 
succeeded  to  all  the  possessions  of  the  Houses  of 
Castile,  Aragon,  and  Burgundy.  In  1516  he  suc- 
ceeded one  grandfather  Ferdinand  in  his  Spanish  domi- 
nions, and  in  1519,  on  the  death  of  his  other  grand- 
father Maximilian,  he  was  elected  to  the  Empire.  In 
Spain  he  was  Charles  the  First,  but,  as  he  was  the 
fifth  Emperor  of  the  name,  he  is  always  spoken  of  in 
history  as  Charles  the  Fifth.  Thus  the  Emperor  was 
again  the  greatest  prince  in  Europe ;  but  this  was  not 
because  he  was  Emperor,  but  because  of  his  dominions 
in  Spain  and  the  Netherlands.  Charles  could  hardly 
be  said  to  belong  to  any  nation  in  particular,  but  in 
the  male  line  he  came  of  the  House  of  Austria,  and 
the  Kings  of  Spain  of  his  dynasty  are  called  the  Aits* 
tnan  Kings.  He  also  obtained  possession  of  the 
County  of  Burgundy  and  of  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  and 


EUROPE 

under 
CHARLES  the   FIFTH 


10  Longitude 


20    from  Greenwich 


Fisk  t,  See,  N.  T. 


•vin  j  Sl/CC£SSOXS  Of  CHARLES  THE  FiFTH.     24^ 
all  these  dominions  he  gave  up  to  his  son  Philip  n 


5.  Successors  of  Charles  the  Fifth.  —  Aftes 
Charles  the  Fifth  came  three  Kings  of  Spain  called 
Philip.  Philip  the  Second  reigned  from  1556  to  1598. 
He  was  a  most  bigoted  Catholic,  yet  almost  the  first 
act  of  his  reign  was  a  war  with  the  Pope,  Paul  the 
Fourth,  in  his  character  of  a  temporal  prince.  In 
Philip's  time  began  the  war  in  the  Netherlands  by 
which  the  northern  provinces  threw  off  the  Spanish 
yoke,  of  which  we  shall  speak  more  presently.  It  was 
lie  also  who  sent  the  famous  Armada  against  England 
in  15^8,  and  he  also  interfered  largely  in  the  affairs 
of  France.  On  the  other  hand,  in  1571  his  fleet,  in 
alliance  with  that  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Venice, 
won  the  sea-fight  of  Lepanto  —  the  ancient  Naupaktos 
in  the  Corinthian  Gulf  —  over  the  Turks.  This  was 
the  first  great  check  which  their  power  met  with.  In 
1580  he  got  possession  of  the  Kingdom  of  Portugal, 
?o  that  the  whole  Spanish  peninsula  was  for  a  while 
joined  together  under  one  ruler.  As  long  as  Philip 
lived,  Spain  outwardly  kept  its  place  as  the  leading 
power  of  Europe  ;  but  under  the  two  following  Kings, 
Philip  the  Third,  who  reigned  from  1598  to  1621, 
and  Philip  the  Fourth,  from  1621  to  1665,  the  Spanish 
power  greatl/  decayed.  The  war  in  the  Netherlands 
went  on  till  the  independence  of  the  seven  northern 
provinces  was  acknowledged,  and  in  1639  tne  P°rtu 
guese  threw  off  the  Spanish  yoke,  and  set  up  the  dynasty 
of  Braganza,  which  has  reigned  in  Portugal  to  our 
own  times.  In  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Fourth  theie 
was  a  long  war  with  France,  which  was  ended  in  1659 
by  giving  up  to  France  part  of  the  Spanish  dominions 
at  the  two  ends  of  Gaul,  Roussillon  and  part  of  Artois* 
The  Spanish  dominions  were  thus  lessened  in  various 
places,  though  Spain  still  kept  her  distant  possessions 
of  the  Two  Sicilies,  Milan,  the  County  of  Burgundy, 
and  the  Southern  Netherlands.  In  its  internal  govern 


244  THE  GREATNESS  isf  SPAIN.  [CHAP. 

merit,  Spain  was,  during  all  this  time,  the  most  despotic 
and  intolerant  country  in  Europe.  The  old  liberties 
of  Castile  were  overthrown  by  Charles  the  Fifth,  and 
those  of  Aragon  by  Philip  the  Second.  Nowhere  were 
Jews  and  heretics  of  all  kinds  more  cruelly  persecuted, 
so  that  in  Spain  the  Reformation  made  no  progress 
The  Moors  too,  who,  at  the  conquest  of  Granada,  had 
been  promised  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  were 
shamefully  oppressed.  A  revolt  under  Philip  the 
Second  was  put  down  with  great  cruelty,  and  at  last 
under  Philip  the  Third,  the  remnant  of  them,  called 
Moriscos,  was  driven  out  of  the  country.  This  was  a 
great  loss  to  Spain,  as  the  Moors  were  a  sharp-witted 
and  hard-working  people,  and  the  provinces  where  they 
lived  were  the  most  flourishing  parts  of  the  peninsula. 
6.  French  Invasion  of  Italy. — During  the 
first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  no  part  of  Europe 
is  brought  more  constantly  before  our  notice  than 
Italy.  But  this  is  no  longer  a  sign  of  the  greatness  of 
Italy,  but  of  its  decay.  Italy  had  now  become  the 
battle-field  on  which  most  of  the  princes  of  Europe 
fought  out  their  quarrels.  During  all  this  time  there 
was  a  long  rivalry  between  France  and  Spain,  which 
was  in  some  sort  a  continuation  of  the  dispute  between 
the  Houses  of  Anjou  and  Aragon  for  the  kingdom  of 
Sicily,  as  that  was  a  continuation  of  the  older  dis- 
pute between  Guelfs  and  Ghibelins.  But  now  that 
the  two  sides  were  represented  by  the  great  kingdoms 
of  France  and  Spain,  the  quarrel  was  carried  out  on  a 
much  greater  scale,  and,  between  the  two,  Italy  was 
lorn  to  pieces  and  utterly  trampled  under  foot.  What 
the  Italians  called  the  invasion  of  the  Barbarians 
began  in  1494,  when  Charles  the  Eighth  of  France 
took  it  into  his  head  that  he  had  a  right  to  the  King- 
dom of  Naples.  In  two  years  he  marched  all  through 
Italy,  conquered  the  kingdom  with  very  little  trouble 
and,  as  soon  as  his  back  was  turned,  lost  it  again. 
Great  confusion  -,>as  caused  throughout  Italy  bj 


xiii.J  THE  LEAGUE  OF  C A  MB  KAY.  24? 

Charles'  march,  and  one  result  of  it  was  that  th« 
Florentines  were  able  to  get  rid  of  the  Medici,  and  that 
Pisa  was  able  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  Florence,  and 
remained  independent  till  1509.  Presently,  when  the 
next  King  of  France,  Lewis  the  Twelfth,  again  set  up 
a  claim  to  the  Kingdom  of  Naples  and  also  to  the 
Duchy  of  Milan,  Ferdinand  did  not  scruple  to  make 
a  treaty  by  which  Naples  was  to  be  divided  between 
the  two  Kings  of  France  and  Aragon.  Lewis  won  the 
Duchy  of  Milan  in  1499,  but,  before  the  division  of 
Naples  was  fully  carried  out,  he  and  Ferdinand  quar- 
relled over  their  spoil ;  and  the  end  of  it  was,  that  in 
1504  Ferdinand  got  possession  of  the  whole  kingdom, 
and  was  thus  King  of  the  2wo  Sicilies.  In  these  wars 
the  Spanish  infantry  won  a  renown  which  they  long 
kept. 

7.  The  League  of  Cambray. — Spain  had  thus 
gained  a  footing  on  the  mainland  of  Italy,  and  Ferdi- 
nand now  went  on  to  meddle  still  more  with  its 
affairs.  In  1508  he  and  Lewis  of  France,  the  reigning 
Pope  Julius  the  Second,  and  the  Emperor-elect  Maxi- 
milian, al-l  joined  together  in  a  league,  called  the 
League  of  Cambray,  to  despoil  the  commonwealth  of 
Venice.  For  each  of  these  princes  pretended  that 
some  part  of  its  territories  rightly  belonged  to  himself. 
Venice  now  seemed  on  the  point  of  ruin,  when  again 
the  spoilers  quarrelled  among  themselves,  but  this  time 
it  did  not  happen  as  it  had  done  in  the  case  of  Naples. 
For  Venice  got  back  nearly  all  that  she  had  lost, 
though  the  commonwealth  was  never  again  so  power- 
ful after  this  war  as  it  had  been  before.  The  cause 
of  the  division  among  the  enemies  of  Venice  was  that 
Pope  Julius,  when  he  had  got  all  that  he  himself 
wanted  from  the  republic,  made  what  he  called  the 
Holy  League  to  drive  the  Barbarians  out  of  Italy.  To 
this  end  he  joined  with  Ferdinand  against  Lewis.  In 
1512  the  French  defeated  the  Spaniards  in  a  great 
battle  at  Ravenna,  but  Pope  Julius  leagued  himsel/ 


246  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.          [CHJUL 

with  the  Swiss,  and  by  their  meanr  the  French  were 
altogether  driven  out  of  Italy.  Florence  had  all  along 
been  in  alliance  with  France,  and,  now  that  the  French 
were  driven  out,  the  commonwealth  was  obliged  tc 
receive  the  Medici  again.  Milan  also  went  back  to  its 
own  Dukes  of  the  House  of  Sforza.  Lewis  and 
Ferdinand  both  died  before  long,  Lewis  in  1515,  and 
Ferdinand  in  1516. 

8.  Wars  of  Charles  and  Francis  in  Italy. — 
Lewis  and  Ferdinand  were  succeeded  by  two  young 
Kings  whose  rivalry  led  to  more  wars.  Lewis  was 
succeeded  in  France  by  Francis  the  First,  and  Ferdi- 
nand, as  we  have  seen,  by  his  grandson  Charles.  Both 
Charles  and  Francis  sought  for  the  Empire  on  the 
death  of  Charles'  other  grandfather  Maximilian  in 
1519,  when  Charles  was  elected.  Thus  the  rivalry 
between  France  and  Spain  was  yet  further  height- 
ened by  the  personal  rivalry  between  the  two  Kings. 
Francis  had  by  far  the  most  compact  and  united  king- 
dom ;  but  Charles  united  the  power  of  Spain,  the 
wealth  of  the  Netherlands,  and  the  dignity  of  the 
Empire.  But  before  Charles  began  to  reign  cither  in 
Spain  or  in  the  Empire,  Francis  had  begun  his  reign 
by  another  invasion  of  Italy.  He  had  first  to  over- 
come an  army  of  Swiss  in  the  battle  of  Marignat.o  in 
1515,  and  he  presently  won  back  the  Duchy  of  Milan. 
Then  in  1521  Pope  Leo  the  Tenth,  who  was  of  the 
House  of  the  Medici,  joined  with  the  Emperor,  and 
another  <var  began,  which  may  be  said  to  have  gone 
on  till  1530.  The  armies  of  the  rival  princes  fought 
at  both  ends  of  Italy,  both  in  the  Duchy  of  Milan  and 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Naples.  In  1525  Francis  himself 
was  taken  prisoner  at  the  battle  of  Paria,  and  was  only 
released  after  consenting  to  a  treaty  (which  he  did  not 
keep),  by  which  he  yielded  many  things  to  the  Em- 
peror. Amongst  other  things,  those  parts  of  the 
Netherlands  which  were  held  in  fief  of  the  Crown  of 
France,  namely  the  Counties  of  Flanders  and  Artcis 


xni.]  THE  STATES  OF  ITALY.  247 

were  set  free  from  all  homage,  just  as  the  Duchy  ol 
Aquitaine  had  been  by  the  Peace  of  Bretigny.  In  all 
these  wars  the  princes  and  commonwealths  of  Italy, 
the  Popes  among  them,  were  dealt  with  as  something 
quite  secondary.  The  Duke  of  Milan  was  set  up  and 
put  down  again,  as  happened  to  suit  the  Emperor  who 
professed  to  be  his  protector;  and  in  1527,  when 
Clement  the  Seventh,  who  was  also  of  the  House  of  the 
Medici,  was  Pope,  Rome  itself  was  taken  and  sacked 
by  the  Imperial  troops,  and  suffered  far  more  from 
them  than  it  had  ever  suffered  in  old  times  from  the 
Goths  or  even  from  the  Vandals.  The  Florentines 
took  advantage  of  the  taking  of  Rome  again  to  get  rid 
of  the  Medici.  But  at  last,  in  1529,  the  Pope,  the 
Emperor,  and  the  King  of  France  all  came  to  terms. 
Francis  betrayed  all  his  allies,  while  Charles  stuck  by 
liis.  In  1530,  Charles  was  crowned  King  of  Italy 
and  Emperor,  bu't  instead  of  taking  the  two  crowns, 
one  at  Milan  and  the  other  at  Rome,  he  took  both 
crowns  together  at  Bologna.  All  Italy  was  now  com- 
pletely under  his  power.  Charles  was  more  powerful 
than  any  Emperor  since  Charles  the  Great,  and  it 
might  have  seemed  that  the  old  days  of  the  Empire 
were  come  agaim  But  after  the  time  of  Charles  his 
power  in  Italy  passed,  not  to  the  next  Emperor,  but  to 
his  son  who  reigned  in  Spain,  so  that  it  was  plain 
where  his  real  strength  had  lain. 

9.  The  States  of  Italy. — The  end  of  these  wars 
thus  was  that  the  power  of  the  Emperor,  or  rather  of 
the  King  of  Spain,  was  established  throughout  Italy. 
Charles  was  himself  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  and,  on 
the  death  of  the  last  Duke  of  Milan,  he  granted  the 
Duchy  to  his  son  Philip,  so  that  the  Kings  of  Spain 
ruled  at  both  ends  of  Italy.  The  other  states  of  Italy 
too  were  really  under  his  power,  much  as,  in  the  old 
days  of  Rome,  the  kingdoms  and  commonwealths  of 
Greece  and  Asia  had  been  before  they  were  actually 
made  into  provinces.  But  there  was  one  Italian  state 


248  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.          [CHAP. 

which  at  least  did  not  yield  without  a  struggle.  Thit 
was  the  commonwealth  of  Florence.  The  Pope  and 
the  Emperor  agreed  that  the  Florentines  should  be 
obliged  again  to  take  back  the  Medici,  but  they  did 
not  do  so  till  after  a  long  and  terrible  siege.  Then 
princes  of  the  house  of  thi  Medici  began  to  reign  as 
Dukes  of  Florence,  and  in  1557  Duke  Cosmo  added  to 
his  dominions  the  territory  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Sienna.  Some  time  after  this  he  got  from  the  Pope  and 
the  Emperor  the  title  of  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  and 
the  memory  of  the  old  republic  was  quite  wiped  out 
Of  the  other  commonwealths,  Venice,  Genoa,  and 
Lucca,  besides  the  little  San  Marino,  still  went  on. 
But  their  governments  were  aristocratic,  and  the  only 
one  of  them  which  played  any  part  in  European  affairs 
was  Venice,  which  was  still  the  bulwark  of  Christendom 
by  sea,  as  Poland  and  Hungary  were  by  land.  But,  in 
the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Turks  won 
from  the  Venetians  many  of  their  possessions  both  in 
the  islands  and  on  the  few  points  which  they  held  on 
the  mainland  of  Peloponnesoe.  And,  notwithstanding 
their  share  in  the  great  victory  of  Lepanto,  the  Vene- 
tians had  in  1570  to  give  up  the  island  of  Cyprus, 
which  the  Turks  had  conquered,  but  they  still  kept 
Crete  and  Corfu  and  some  of  the  smaller  islands. 

10.  The  Popes. — The  Popes  must,  especially  in 
these  times,  be  looked  at  in  two  lights,  as  Italian 
princes  and  as  the  heads  of  those  of  the  Western 
Churches  which  still  clave  to  them.  In  their  temporal 
character  the  Popes  were  much  mixed  up  in  the  wars 
of  Italy,  and  they  had  the  great  advantage  of  being 
able  to  call  on  men  to  support  their  political  schemes 
under  pretence  of  helping  the  cause  of  the  Church. 
During  the  sixteenth  century  the  Popes  greatly  ex- 
tended their  temporal  dominion,  joining  on  to  it 
many  principalities  and  cities  which,  as  they  gave 
out,  were  held  in  fief  of  them,  so  that,  if  their  holders 
rebelled  or  if  their  families  became  extinct,  they  would 


x'»-]  THE  POPES.  24Q 

fall  to  the  Pope  as  superior  lord.  In  this  way  the 
Popes  carae  to  be,  even  as  temporal  princes,  the  great- 
est power  in  Italy  after  the  Kings  of  Spain.  At  the 
latter  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  centuries,  the  corruption  of  the  court  of 
Rome,  and  the  personal  wickedness  of  the  Popes,  was 
at  its  height.  Some  of  them  were  men  of  most 
scandalous  lives,  as  was  Alexander  the  Sixth  of  the 
Spanish  family  of  Borgia,  who  was  Pope  when  Charles 
the  Eighth  came  into  Italy.  And  even  those  who  were 
not  so  bad  as  this  were  thoroughly  worldly  men,  who 
thought  more  of  increasing  their  dominions  and  ex- 
alting their  own  kinsfolk  than  of  doing  their  duty  as 
the  chief  Bishops  of  the  Church.  Such  -was  Julius  the 
Second,  the  great  fighting  Pope,  and  Leo  the  Tenth  and 
Clement  the  Seventh,  the  two  Popes  of  the  house  of 
Medici.  Between  them  came  Hadrian  the  Sixth,  a 
native  of  the  Netherlands,  an  honest  man  who  was 
anxious  to  reform  practical  abuses,  but  who  had  no 
kind  of  love  for  Italian  ways,  or  for  the  revival  of 
ancient  learning,  of  which  Leo  the  Tenth  was  a  great 
promoter.  Hadrian  however  reigned  only  a  very  little 
time.  It  was  in  the  time  of  Leo  the  Tenth  that  the 
Reformation  began  to  be  preached  by  Martin  Luther 
in  Germany,  but  the  Popes  for  some  time  took  but 
little  heed  of  what  was  going  on.  But  towards  the 
middle  of  the  century  things  began  to  change.  The 
Reformation,  as  a  system  of  doctrine,  made  but  little 
progress  in  Italy,  and  it  never  became  the  religion  of 
any  Italian  state.  But  there  were  many  men,  even 
high  in  the  Roman  Church,  who  would  gladly  have 
yielded  to  the  Reformers  on  some  points,  and  there 
were  still  more  who,  without  wishing  to  change  any 
of  the  received  doctrines,  were  eager  to  reform  practical 
abuses  and  get  rid  of  scandals.  In  this  way  there 
came  to  be  a  marked  change  between  the  Popes  at 
the  beginning  of  the  century  and  those  towards  its 
end.  These  later  Popes  -were  often  fierce  bigots,  read? 


*So  THE  GREA  TNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CHAP 

to  persecute  and  to  approve  of  crimes  done  in  the 
cause  of  the  Church  ;  but  they  were  almost  always  men 
of  good  lives  in  their  own  persons,  and  eager  to  do 
what  they  thought  their  duty.  One  famous  Pope  at 
this  time  was  Sixtus  the  Fifth,  who  reigned  from  1585 
to  1590  ;  he  was  wonderfully  active  in  bringing  his 
temporal  dominions  into  good  order.  In  '545  a  Gen- 
eral Council  came  together  at  Trent,  which  went  on, 
with  some  stoppages,  till  1563.  This  Council  reformed 
many  practical  abuses,  but  it  fixed  the  Roman  Catholic 
doctrines  and  practices  in  a  much  more  rigid  shape 
than  they  had  ever  been  put  forth  before.  Its  decrees 
were  not  received  by  the  Churches  which  accepted  the 
Reformation,  and  therefore  the  holding  of  the  Council 
only  made  the  breach  wider  and  more  hopeless. 
During  this  time  too  new  religious  orders  were  formed 
for  the  special  purpose  of  advancing  the  doctrines  of 
the  Church  and  converting  heretics  and  heathens. 
The  chief  of  these  was  the  famous  Society  of  Jesus,  or 
Order  of  the  Jesuits,  founded  by  the  Spaniard  Ignatius 
Loyola.  This  order  was  for  a  long  time  the  chief 
support  of  the  Papal  dominion  ;  and  the  Jesuits  won 
back  a  large  part  of  Europe  to  the  communion  of 
Rome,  but  in  most  countries,  Roman  Catholic  as  well 
as  Protestant,  they  contrived  to  make  themselves 
obnoxious  to  the  civil  power. 

ii.  The  Emperors. — Frederick  the  Third  was 
the  last  Emperor  who  was  regularly  crowned  at  Rome. 
His  son  Maximilian,  who  married  Mary  of  Burgundy, 
was  never  crowned  either  at  Milan  or  at  Rome,  but 
he  took  the  new  title  of  Emperor-elect  instead  of  merely 
King  of  the  Romans.  No  later  Emperor  except  Charles 
the  Fifth  was  crowned  in  Italy  at  all,  and  Charles,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  not  crowned  at  Rome.  Maximilian 
also  took  the  title,  which  had  never  before  been  for- 
mally used,  of  King  of  Germany,  and  all  the  Kings  after 
him  were  called  in  formal  language  Kings  of  Germany 
and  Emperors-dect.  But  ihey  were  commonly  spckea 


xiii.  1      THE  REFORM  A  TION  IN  GERMAN  Y.         251 

of  as  Emperors,  which  before  was  never  done  unless 
they  had  been  crowned  at  Rome.  Maximilian  was 
always  trying  to  do  greater  things  than  he  was  able  to 
do,  but,  as  King  of  Germany,  he  certainly  did  some- 
thing to  restore  the  royal  power,  and  much  more  to 
bring  the  country  into  greater  peace  and  order.  In 
his  time  Germany  was  divided  into  Circles,  and  a 
supreme  court  called  the  Imperial  Chamber  was  set  up. 
These  changes  did  not  do  all  that  they  were  wished  to 
do,  but  still  they  did  something.  Then  came  the  reign  of 
Charier  the  Fifth,  and  the  great  power  of  the  Emperor, 
though  not  of  the  Empire,  in  Italy  and  the  world 
generally.  After  Charles'  abdication,  his  brother 
Ferdinand,  who  was  already  King  of  the  Romans, 
succeeded.  In  his  time  and  in  that  of  his  successors 
Maximilian  the  Second,  Rudolf  the  Second,  and  Matthias, 
we  may  say  that  the  Empire  was  purely  German  and 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  affairs  of  Italy  or  of  the 
jvorld  in  general.  In  the  next  reign,  that  of  Ferdinand 
the  Second,  things  began  to  change  somewhat. 

12.  The  Reformation  in  Germany. — :ln  the 
reign  of  Charles  the  Fifth  came  the  beginning  of 
the  Reformation.  Nowhere  was  reformation  more 
needed  than  in  Germany,  where  the  Bishops  and 
Abbots  had  grown  into  powerful  temporal  princes, 
and  quite  neglected  their  spiritual  duties.  Towards 
the  end  of  Maximilian's  reign  attempts  began  to  be 
made  in  the  Diet  for  the  reformation  of  practical 
abuses,  and  about  the  same  time  the  famous  Martin 
Luther  began  to  attack,  first  the  practical  abuses,  and 
then  the  established  doctrines,  of  the  Church.  This 
he  began  to  do  in  1517,  and  he  was  greatly  followed 
by  many  people,  though  little  notice  was  at  first  taken 
of  him  in  high  places.  Luther  was  protected  by  his 
own  sovereign,  Frederick  Elector  of  Saxony ;  and,  when 
in  1520  a  bull  was  put  forth  against  hmi  by  Pope  Lee 
the  Tenth,  Luther  ventured  to  burn  it.  By  this  time 
Charles  the  Fifth  had  been  elected  Fjmperor,  and  IB 


«52  TffE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAM.          [C:JAP 

1521  Luther  was  condemned  in  a  Diet  of  the  Empir< 
at  Worms.  But  Luther  was  still  protected  by  the 
Electors  of  Saxony,  and  gradually  many  of  the  princes 
and  cities  of  Germany,  especially  in  the  north,  em- 
braced his  doctrines.  Germany  was  further  disturbed 
by  a  revolt  of  the  peasants  in  various  parts,  but  all 
that  came  of  it  was  to  make  their  bondage  harder  than 
it  had  been  before.  There  were  also  revolts  of  the 
Anabaptists,  fanatics  who  not  only  preached  wild  doc- 
trines in  religion,  but  tried  to  upset  all  government  and 
society.  Against  all  movements  of  this  kind,  Luther 
set  himself  quite  as  strongly  as  the  Catholics  did. 
His  own  reformation  meanwhile  went  on.  At  the  Diet 
of  Speyer  in  1529  the  Emperor  and  a  majority  of  the 
Diet  passed  a  decree  against  all  ecclesiastical  changes. 
Against  this  the  princes  who  followed  Luther  protested, 
and  thus  arose  the  name  of  Protestants,  a  name  which 
originally  meant  the  German  followers  of  Luther,  as 
distinguished,  not  only  from  the  Roman  Catholics,  but 
from  the  other  Reformers  who  did  not  agree  with 
Luther  on  all  points.  In  1530  the  Lutherans  or  Pro- 
testants drew  up  a  statement  of  their  doctrines,  which 
was  called  the  Confession  of  Augsburg;  in  the  next 
year  the  Protestant  princes  and  cities  joined  together  in 
a  confederacy  for  mutual  defence,  which  was  called  the 
Smalcaldic  League.  But,  when  some  of  them  tried  to 
get  help  from  France,  Luther  protested  against  such 
treason,  and  a  kind  of  reconciliation  was  patched 
up  with  the  Emperor.  There  was  no  time  when  Ger- 
many more  needed  to  be  at  peace,  for,  besides  France 
on  the  one  hand,  the  Turks  were  threatening  on  the 
other,  and  Sultan  Suleiman  or  Solomon  in  1529 
actually  besieged  Vienna,  and  ravaged  the  country  as 
tar  as  Regensburg  or  Ratisbon.  In  1546  Luther  d/ed, 
and  in  the  same  year  a  war  broke  out  between  the 
Emperor  and  the  Catholics  on  one  side  and  the 
Protestant  princes  on  the  other,  which  went  on  with 
some  stoppages  til.  in  1555,  by  the  Peace  of  Augslurg 


HII.]  THE  ADVANCE  OF  FRANCE.  253 

the  two  religions  were  put  on  terms  of  equality  through 
out  the  Empire.  But  this  was  no  real  toleration  ;  it 
simply  meant  that  the  government  of  each  German 
state  might  set  up  which  religion  it  pleased,  Catholic 
or  Protestant ;  nothing  was  done  for  those  persons  in 
any  state  who  might  be  of  a  different  religion  from  the 
Government  Thus,  for  instance,  in  Austria,  where  a 
targe  part  of  the  people  had  become  Protestants,  the 
Catholic  religion  was  brought  back,  chiefly  by  the  help 
of  the  Jesuits.  And  in  the  same  way  Protestants  of 
one  sect  did  not  scruple  to  persecute  Protestants  of 
another :  for  in  some  parts  of  Germany  men  had  fol- 
lowed the  doctrines  of  the  French  reformer  Calvin, 
and  they  and  the  Lutherans  drove  one  another  out. 
During  Ferdinand's  time  and  that  of  the  following 
Emperors,  religious  disputes  went  on,  till,  in  the  reign 
of  Ferdinand  the  Second,  came  the  beginning  of  a 
more  fearful  religious  war  than  had  ever  happened 
before  between  Christian  and  Christian. 

13.  The  Advance  of  France. — The  power  of 
France  was  meanwhile  advancing,  and  the  jealousy 
between  the  French  Kings  and  the  House  of  Austria, 
both  in  Spain  and  in  the  Netherlands,  was  getting 
stronger  and  stronger.  The  Kings  of  France  were 
getting  more  and  more  absolute  in  their  own  dominions, 
and  they  were  still  increasing  their  dominions  at  the 
expense  of  their  neighbours.  In  their  Italian  wars 
they  failed  ;  for  they  were  never  able  to  keep  either 
the  Duchy  of  Milan  or  the  Kingdom  of  Naples.  But 
the  only  great  fief  of  the  Crown  of  France  which  still 
kept  its  own  princes  was  now  added  to  the  royal  do- 
minions. This  was  the  Duchy  of  Britanny,  which 
passed  to  an  heiress,  Anne,  who- married  two  Kings  ot 
France  in  succession,  Charles  the  Eighth  and  Lewis 
the  Twelfth.  From  this  time  Britanny  has  been  reck- 
oned part  of  France,  but  to  this  day  a  large  part  of  the 
people  do  not  speak  French,  but  still  use  their  old 
Celtic  tongue,  akin  to  the  Welsh  of  Britain.  Lewis  th« 


254  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPATtf.    ,        [CHAP 

Twelfth,  though  he  did  so  much  harm  in  Italy,  mad« 
a  good  King  in  his  own  kingdom,  and  was  called  the 
Father  of  the  People.  The  next  King,  Francis  the 
First,  was  thoroughly  bad  in  every  way,  except  that  he 
was  a  promoter  of  art  and  learning.  All  these  Kings 
were  of  the  House  of  Valois ;  but,  as  neither  Charles 
the  Eighth  nor  Lewis  the  Twelfth  left  any  sons,  the 
Crown  did  not  again  pass  from  father  to  son  till 
the  death  of  Francis  in  1547,  when  it  passed  to  his 
son  Henry  the  Second.  There  were  some  wars  between 
France  and  England  at  this  time,  but  they  were  ol 
small  moment  compared  with  those  either  earlier  or 
later.  At  one  time,  in  1544,  Henry  the  Eighth  of 
England  took  Boulogne,  but  in  1557  the  French  got 
back  Calais,  which  the  English  had  kept  ever  since 
the  time  of  Edward  the  Third.  But  these  wars  with 
England  were  nothing  compared  with  the  long  wars 
which  Francis  and  his  son  Henry  waged  with  the 
Emperor  Charles  and  his  son  Philip.  These  may  be 
said  to  have  gone  on  from  1520  to  1558.  For,  though 
peace  was  made  several  times,  it  never  was  well  kept 
or  lasted  long.  The  French  Kings,  while  cruelly  per- 
secuting the  Protestants  in  their  own  kingdom,  did  not 
scruple  to  help  the  Protestants  in  Germany  in  their 
wars  with  the  Emperor,  nor  were  they  ashamed  to 
encourage  the  Turks,  the  common  enemies  of  Chris- 
tendom, to  attack  the  Empire  and  its  allies  by  land  ana 
sea.  In  1537  Francis  got  hold  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  dominions  of  Charles  Duke  of  Savoy,  but  this 
conquest  was  not  kept  very  long.  Thus  far  the  Frencn 
Kings  had  mainly  sought  after  Italian  dominion ;  they 
now  began  more  directly  to  attack  the  Empire  on  the 
side  of  Germany.  In  1552  Henry  the  Second  got 
hold  of  three  Bishopricks  of  the  Empire,  Mefz,  Tim!, 
and  Verdun,  which,  though  they  lay  apart  from  the 
Kingdom  of  France  and  were  surrounded  by  the 
Duchy  of  Lorraine,  were  kept  by  France  ever  after,  till 
Metz  was  won  back  in  our  own  times.  Indeed,  from 


KITI.]          THE  CIVIL   WARS  OF  FRANCE.  251 

this  time,  though  Lorraine  remained  a  fief  of  the 
Empire,  yet  it  began  to  come  very  much  under  the 
power  of  France,  and  the  family  of  Guise,  who  were 
of  the  ducal  House  of  Lorraine,  began  to  play  a  great 
part  in  French  affairs.  After  Charles  had  abdicated, 
the  war  still  went  on,  though  of  course  it  was  now  a 
war  between  France  and  Spain,  and  no  longer  between 
France  and  the  Empire.  At  last  the  French  under- 
went two  great  defeats  at  St.  Quentin  and  Gravelines, 
on  the  borders  of  France  and  the  Netherlands,  so  the 
Peace  of  Cateau-Canibresis  was  made  in  1558,  and  the 
advance  of  the  French  power  was  stopped  for  a  time. 
14.  The  Civil  Wars  of  France. — From  th^ 
Peace  of  Cateau-Cambresis  till  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  history  of  France  is  mainly  taken  up  with 
the  religious  wars  between  the  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants within  the  country.  These  lasted,  with  stoppages 
now  and  then,  from  1562  to  1595.  The  French 
Protestants  were  not  Lutherans,  but  followers  of  John 
Chauvin,  or  Calvin,  a  Frenchman  by  birth,  who  settled 
at  Geneva.  His  teaching  went  further  away  from 
that  of  the  Roman  Church  than  that  of  Luther.  It  was 
followed  by  all  who  accepted  the  Reformation  in  the 
Romance-speaking  countries,  and  also  in  part  of  Ger- 
many. The  name  Protestant  therefore  did  not  pro- 
perly belong  to  the  Calvinists  in  France,  who  called 
themselves  the  Reformed,  and  who  were  commonly 
known  as  Hugu-enots,  They  were  cruelly  persecuted 
under  Francis  and  Henry  the  Second.  After  Henry 
three  of  his  sons  rtigned  in  order,  Francis  the  Second 
from  1559  to  1560,  Charles  the  Ninth  from  1560  to 
1574,  and  Henry  the  Third  from  1574  to  1589.  The 
mother  of  these  three  Kings,  Catharine  of  Medici,  of 
the  House  of  Florence,  had  great  power,  which  she 
used  very  badly,  during  the  reigns  of  all  her  sons. 
The  religious  wars  began  in  1562,  and  in  the  latter  part 
of  them  the  chief  part  on  the  Reformed  side  was  taken 
by  Henry  of  Bourbon,  King  of  Navarre.  He  was  the 


256  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIX.  [ciiAf 

next  heir  to  the  Crown  of  France  after  the  sons  of 
Henry  the  Second,  though  the  kindred  between  them 
in  the  male  line  was  very  remote,  as  they  were  descen- 
ded from  different  sons  of  Saint  Lewis.  Henry  had 
inherited  from  his  mother  the  title  of  King  of  Navarre, 
and  with  it  the  possession  of  that  small  part  of  the  king- 
dom which  lay  north  of  the  Pyrenees,  and  which  had 
been  kept  by  its  own  Kings  when  all  the  rest  had  been 
conquered  by  Ferdinand  of  Aragon.  He  had  also 
large  fiefs  in  the  South  of  France,  which  was  the  part 
where  the  Huguenots  were  the  strongest,  like  the 
Albigenses  in  the  old  times.  The  two  parties  were 
always  going  to  war,  and  always  making  peace  again  ; 
but,  when  peace  was  made,  it  never  gave  any-  real 
toleration.  The  Reformed  religion  was  allowed  to  be 
practised  in  particular  towns  and  places, — La  Rochelle 
especially  became  something  like  a  separate  Calvinist 
commonwealth — but  men  were  not  allowed  to  follow 
what  religion  they  pleased  everywhere.  Philip  of 
Spain  meddled  as  much  as  he  could,  of  course  helping 
the  Catholics.  The  most  famous  event  of  these  times 
was  the  massacre  of  the  Huguenots  at  Paris  on 
Saint  Bartholomew's  Day,  1572,  which  was  called  the 
Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew.  At  last,  when  Henry 
the  Third  died  in  1589,  the  Crown  came  of  right  to 
Henry  of  Navarre,  but  he  found  that,  as  long  as  he 
remained  a  Huguenot,  Paris  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
kingdom  would  not  acknowledge  him.  So  in  1593  he 
turned  Catholic,  and  then  he  soon  obtained  possession 
of  the  whole  land.  Instead  of  the  old  title  of  King  of 
the  French  (in  Latin  Rex  Franconun),  he  called  himself 
King  of  France  and  Navarre.  Henry  was  murdered 
in  1610,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  young  son,  Leans 
the  Thirteenth,  who  reigned  till  1643.  Under  his 
famous  Minister  Cardinal  Richelieu,  the  royal  power 
was  greatly  strengthened,  and,  "though  the  Huguenots 
were  not  persecuted,  they  lost  their  special  privileges 
in  particular  places.  Under  him  too  the  House  of 


xiil.]       REVOLT  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.          257 

Bourbon  began  to  take  the  first  place  in  Europe  instead 
of  the  House  of  Austria, 

15.  The  Revolt  of  the  Netherlands.— Mean- 
while a  deadly  blow  was  dealt  to  the  power  of  Spain 
in  her  outlying  possessions,  and  a  new  commonwealth 
arose  in   Europe.      It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
Netherlands   had  been  brought   together   under  the 
Dukes  of  Burgundy,  and  that  they  had  now  passed  to 
Philip  of  Spain  as  their  successor.     They  were  a  most 
important   part  of   his    dominions,  for  nowhere  else 
north  of  the  Alps  were  there  so  many  great  and  rich 
cities  near  together ;  but  the  bad  government  of  Philip, 
especially  his  religious  persecutions,  and  above  all  the 
cruelties  of  his  Lieutenant  the  Duke  of  Alva,  led  to  a 
revolt.     This  began  in  1568,  and  the  war  went  on  till 
1609.     The  great  leader  of  the  revolt  was    William 
Prince  of  Orange,  called  the  Silent.     His  principality 
of  Orange  was  one  of  the  small  fiefs  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Burgundy  which  had  not   been  swallowed  up  by 
France,  though  it  was  now  almost  wholly  surrounded 
by  French  territory.      In  this  he  was  something  like 
Henry  of  Bourbon,  with  his  little  kingdom  of  Navarre, 
for  thr  Prince  of  Orange  had  private  estates  in  the 
Netherlands  which  were  really  worth  much  more  than 
his  principality.    His  wisdom  and  endurance  led  to  the 
deliverance  of  all  the  northern  part  of  the  Netherlands 
from  the  Spanish  yoke.     At  the  beginning  of  the  revolt 
the  Southern  provinces  were  the  most   zealous;  but 
after  a  while,  as  their  people  were  mainly  Catholics, 
they  fell  back  under  the  power  of  Spain,  and  they 
remained  dependencies  of  one  power  after  another, 
till  such  parts  of  them  as  escaped  being  swallowed  up 
by  France  became  the  present  Kingdom  of  Belgium. 

16.  The    United   Provinces. — Meanwhile  the 
Northern   provinces,   Holland,   Zealand,   and   others, 
where    the    people   were   mostly   of    the   Reformed 
religion,  stuck  by  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  called  in 
help  from  England,  France,  and  the  German  branch 


258  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CHAP 

of  the  House  of  Austria.  But  none  of  these  foreign 
helpers  did  them  much  real  good  ;  so  at  last  they 
formed  themselves,  in  1581,  into  the  Federal  Common- 
wealth of  the  Seven  United  Provinces.  In  1584  the 
Prince  was  murdered;  for  Phiap,  who  stuck  at  no 
crime  in  what  he  thought  the  cause  either  of  the 
Crown  or  of  the  Church,  had  offered  rewards  to  any 
one  who  would  kill  him.  After  William's  death  the 
war  was  continued  by  his  son  Maurice,  and  it  went 
on  after  Philip's  death  till  peace  was  made  in  1609. 
The  peace  was  in  name  only  a  truce  for  twelve  years, 
because  Spain  was  too  proud  to  acknowledge  the 
independence  of  her  revolted  subjects,  but  the  war 
now  really  came  to  an  end,  and  the  United  Prmn'nccs, 
answering  nearly  to  the  present  Kingdom  of  the  Nether- 
lands, were  firmly  established  as  an  independent 
power.  This  was  one  of  the  most  famous  wars  in  all 
history,  for  never  did  so  small  a  power  so  long  and  so 
successfully  withstand  a  great  one.  Some  of  the 
greatest  generals  of  the  age  were  brought  against  the 
Provinces.  There  was  the  Duke  of  Alva  first,  and 
then  Don  John  of  Austria,  Philip's  half-brother,  who 
had  won  the  battle  of  Lepanto,  his  nephew  the  famous 
Alexander  Duke  of  Parma,  and  lastly  the  Marquess 
Spinola,  whose  great  exploit  was  the  siege  of  Ostcnd, 
in  the  latter  years  of  the  war.  The  Dutch,  as  the 
people  of  Holland  and  the  other  United  Provinces  are 
now  commonly  called  in  a  special  way,  did  everything 
for  themselves ;  for  they  got  very  little  real  help  from 
those  who  professed  to  be  their  allies  in  England  and 
France.  Thus  a  new  state  and  a  new  commonwealth 
was  formed  in  Europe.  In  strictness  the  Provinces 
were  still  members  of  the  Empire,  but  their  allegiance 
was  quite  nominal,  and  in  1648  their  absolute  inde- 
pendence of  the  Empire  was  formally  acknowledged. 
Owing  chiefly  to  the  daring  and  activity  of  their 
people  in  all  things  to  do  with  trade  and  the  sea,  the 
United  Provinces,  small  as  their  territory  was,  reckoned 


xm.]  SWITZERLAND  AND  SAVOY,  259 

during  the  rvhole  of  the  seventeenth  century  as  one  of 
the  chief  powers  of  Europe.  They  came  afterwards  to 
defy  France,  as  they  had  before  defied  Spain,  and 
things  so  turned  about  that,  before  the  end  of  the 
century,  they  were  helping  Spain  against  France. 

17.  Switzerland  and  Savoy. — Meanwhile  the 
older  Federal  commonwealth  which  had  grown  up  at 
the  other  end  of  the  Empire,  the  Old  League  of  High 
Germany  or  of  Switzerland,  was  playing  an  important 
part  in  European  affairs.  From  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  till  after  the  war  with  Charles  of 
Burgundy,  the  Confederates  had  made  many  conquests 
and  alliances,  but  they  did  not  admit  any  new  Canton 
into  their  own  body.  But  in  the  latter  years  of  the 
fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
five  new  Cantons  were  made,  Freiburg,  Solothurn, 
Basel,  Schaffhausen,  and  Appenzell.  These  made  up 
the  Thirteen  Cantons,  which  lasted  till  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  All  these  were  purely  German, 
but  now  begins  the  connexion  of  the  League  with 
the  Romance  lands.  About  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century  the  Confederates  won  a  small  territory  in 
Italy,  and  we  have  seen  that  they  played  a  great 
part  in  the  wars  of  that  country.  And,  ever  since 
the  Burgundian  War,  they  had  been  making  their 
way  to  the  West,  in  the  lands  of  the  now  pretty 
well  forgotten  Kingdom  of  Burgundy.  The  history 
of  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  now  becomes  of  great  im- 
portance. For,  whereas  they  had  lands  both  in  Bur- 
gundy and  in  Italy,  they  have  ever  since  been  losing 
their  lands  north  of  the  Alps  and  winning  new  lands  to 
the  south.  At  last,  in  our  own  day,  they  have  lost  all 
their  old  Burgundian  dominions,  but  have  become 
Kings  of  all  Italy.  But  at  this  time  it  seemed  as  if  the 
power  of  Savoy  was  going  to  be  wiped  out  altogether. 
We  must  remember  that  the  territories  both  of  the 
Confederates  and  of  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  were  still 
parts  of  the  Empire,  though  their  real  connexion  with 


160  THE  GREA  TNESS  OF  SPAIN.  JCHAI. 

it  was  very  slight.  As  in  Germany,  religious  and 
political  affairs  had  much  to  do  with  one  another;  but 
Switzerland  had  its  own  Reformation  distinct  from  that 
of  Germany.  The  new  doctrines  were  first  preached  at 
Zurich  in  1519,  by  Ulrich  Zwingli,  whose  teaching  in 
many  things  went  further  away  from  the  received  faitli 
than  that  of  Luther.  He  also  did  good  by  speaking 
against  the  custom  of  men  hiring  themselves  out  as 
mercenary  soldiers.  Zurich,  Bern,  and  several  other 
Cantons  accepted  his  teaching,  while  others  remained 
Catholic  and  some  were  divided.  A  civil  war  followed, 
and  Zwingli  was  killed  in  battle  in  1531.  Meanwhile 
the  Reformation  was  preached  by  William  Farel  in 
the  lands  bordering  on  the  Confederates  to  the  west, 
and  espec'ally  in  the  free  city  of  Geneva.  That  city 
was  hemmed  round  by  the  dominions*  of  the  Dukes 
of  Savoy,  who  were  always  wishing  to  get  hold  of  it. 
Now  that  Geneva  had  embraced  the  Reformed  re- 
ligion, there  was  a  further  pretext  for  attacking  it,  and 
in  1534  Duke  Charles  of  Savoy  besieged  the  city. 
But  Geneva  was  in  alliance  with  Bern  and  with  some 
others  among  the  Confederates ;  so  a  Bernese  army 
marched  to  deliver  Geneva,  and  at  the  same  time  took 
the  opportunity  of  conquering  a  large  part  of  the 
dominions  of  Savoy  on  both  sides  of  the  Lake  of 
Geneva.  Other  parts  were  seized  by  the  Canton  of 
Freiburg,  though  it  remained  Catholic,  and  by  the 
little  Confederation  of  Wallis  or  Valais,  which  was  in 
alliance  with  the  Swiss.  Bern  not  long  after  also 
annexed  the  Bishoprick  of  Lausanne — the  Bishop  of 
Lausanne,  like  other  Bishops  of  the  Empire,  being  a 
temporal  prince — but  in  1564  she  restored  to  Savoy 
her  conquests  south  of  the  Lake.  The  result  of  all 
this  was  that  the  Confederates,  themselves  a  purely 
German  body,  became  the  head  of  a  large  body  of 
Romance-speaking  subjects  and  allies,  which  in  later 
times  have  been  made  Cantons  alongside  of  the 
original  German  states.  Geneva  from  this  lira* 


xiii.]      THE  REFORMATION  IN  ENGLAND.         26* 

remained  a  free  city,  though  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  still 
sometimes  tried  to  seize  upon  it.  And  presently  the 
great  French  Reformer,  John  Calvin,  came  there, 
and  became  the  real  ruler  of  the  city,  which  thus  grew 
into  a  kind  of  centre  for  men  of  all  lands  who  followed 
his  doctrines.  After  this  time  the  affairs  of  the  Con- 
federates had  but  little  to  do  with  the  general  state  of 
things  in  Europe,  but  it  should  be  noticed  that  in  1648 
they  were,  like  the  United  Provinces,  acknowledged  to 
be  quite  independent  of  the  Empire.  As  for  Savoy, 
almost  as  soon  as  Bern  had  conquered  the  northern 
districts,  the  whole  of  the  Duke's  dominions  were 
overrun  by  France,  but  they  were  gradually  won  back 
by  the  next  Duke  Emmanuel  Filibert.  From  this 
time  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  began  to  look  more  to  their 
Italian  than  to  their  Burgundian  dominions.  Thus  a 
dispute  with  France  about  the  marquisate  of  Saluzzo 
was  ended  by  the  Duke  Charles  Emmanuel,  who 
reigned  from  1580  to  1630,  keeping  Saluszo  and 
giving  up  the  district  of  Bresse  to  France.  These  are 
but  small  districts,  but  they  show  the  way  in  which 
France  was  winning  the  old  Burgundian  lands  bit  by 
bit,  while  Savoy  was  losing  territory  north  of  the  Alps 
and  gaining  it  in  Italy. 

1 8.  The  Reformation  in  England.  —  The 
affairs  of  the  countries  of  which  we  have  thus  far 
spoken  were  all  closely  connected  with  one  another. 
England  meanwhile  was  constantly  mixed  up  with  the 
general  course  of  affairs,  but  she  did  not  engage  in  any 
such  great  wars  on  the  Continent  as  she  did  in  either 
earlier  or  later  times.  After  the  ending  of  the  great 
war  with  France  England  was  torn  in  pieces  by  the 
Civil  Wars  between  the  different  claimants  of  the 
Crown  of  the  Houses  of  York  and  Lancaster,  and  there 
was  no  King  whose  title  was  altogether  undisputed  till 
the  accession  of  Henry  the  Eighth  in  1509.  He  was 
always  mixed  up  with  foreign  affairs ;  and  when  the 
Empire  was  vacant,  in  1519,  he  had  some  notion  of 


262  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPA IV.  [CHAP 

getting  chosen  himself,  and  there  was  talk  more  than 
oi.ce  of  his  famous  minister,  Cardinal  Wolsey,  being 
chosen  Pope.  But  in  truth  nothing  very  great  was 
done  by  England  on  the  Continent  at  this  time,  except 
that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  English  conquered  Boulognt 
and  kept  it  for  a  short  time.  \/i he  Reformation  in 
England  is  commonly  said  to  have  begun  under  Henry 
the  Eighth,  but  in  truth  Henry  changed  very  little 
either  in  doctrine  or  in  ceremony.  What  was  done  in 
his  time  was  to  restore  and  enlarge  the  authority  which 
the  old  Kings  had  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  to 
declare  that  the  Pope  had  no  jurisdiction  in  England. 
AH  through  his  reign  men  who  taught  the  Reformed 
doctrines  were  burned  as  heretics.  It  was  only 
when  Henry's  son,  Edward  the  Sixth,  succeeded 
in  1547  that  any  strictly  religious  changes  were  made. 
Then,  in  1553,  came  Henry's  daughter  Mary.  She 
was,  through  her  mother  Katharine  of  Aragon,  a 
cousin  of  the  Emperor  Charles,  and  she  married  his 
son  Philip,  afterwards  Philip  the  Second  of  Spain. 
Thus  England  was  in  close  alliance  with  Spain  and  at 
enmity  with  France.  Now  it  was  that  England  lost 
Calais,  and  so  had  no  longer  any  possessions  on  the 
Continent.  Mary  also  undid  all  that  had  been  done 
by  her  father  and  brother  ;  not  only  were  the  old 
doctrines  and  ceremonies  restored,  but  the  authority 
of  the  Pope  was  set  up  again.  Under  her  siste- 
Elizabeth,  who  began  to  reign  in  1558,  the  English 
Reformation  was  finally  settled.  The  Pope's  autho- 
rity was  again  thrown  off,  such  changes  as  were 
thought  needful  were  made  in  doctrine  and  worship, 
but  the  general  system  and  government  of  the  Church 
went  on.  But  the  reign  of  Philip  and  Mary,  under 
which  many  men  were  burned  for  their  religion,  had 
thoroughly  set  Englishmen  against  anything  that  had 
to  do  with  either  Spain  or  the  Pope,  and  many  men  in 
England  wished  that  change  had  gone  further  in 
ifeligious  matters  than  it  had  gone. 


Kin.]  ENGLAND  AND  SCOTLAND.  263 

19.  England  and  Scotland. — Meanwhile  the  re- 
lations between  England  and  the  neighbouring  king- 
dom of  Scotland  were  very  important.  The  old  wars 
often  began  again,  and,  when  James  the  fifth,  of 
Scotland  died  in  1541,  leaving  only  a  young  daughter 
called  Mary,  there  was  talk  of  joining  the  two  king- 
doms by  marrying  her  to  Henry  the  Eighth's  son 
Edward,  afterwards  Edward  the  Sixth.  But  all  that 
came  of  this  was  more  wars,  and  the  throwing  of  Scot- 
land still  more  thoroughly  on  the  side  of  France. 
Queen  Mary  was  brought  up  in  France  and  she  married 
the  Dauphin  Francis,  who  was  afterwards  King  fora  little 
while.  She  was  thus  Queen  regnant  of  Scotland  and 
Queen  consort  of  France,  and  she  claimed  to  be  Queen 
of  England  also,  because,  according  to  the  extreme 
views  of  the  papal  power,  she  had  a  better  right  to  the 
English  Crown  than  Elizabeth.  After  the  death  of 
Francis  she  went  back  to  Scotland,  but  about  this 
time  the  greater  part  of  the  people  of  Scotland  em- 
braced the  Reformation  in  a  very  extreme  form,  while 
Mary  stuck  to  the  old  religion.  She  was  afterwards 
driven  out  of  her  kingdom  for  her  personal  crimes,  and 
took  refuge  in  England,  where  she  was  kept  in  ward 
for  many  years.  She  thus  naturally  got  to  be  looked 
on  as  a  Catholic  saint  and  confessor,  and  she  became 
a  centre  of  conspiracies  against  Elizabeth  at  home  and 
abroad.  At  last,  in  1587,  she  was  beheaded  for  her 
share  in  a  plot  against  Elizabeth's  life.  The  indigna- 
tion of  the  Catholic  party  everywhere  was  great,  and 
now  the  quarrel  between  England  and  Spain  broke  out 
on  a  great  scale.  (Elizabeth  and  Philip  had  for  many 
years  been  doing  harm  to  each  other  in  a  small  way,  but 
now,  in  1588,  Philip  sent  his  great  Armada  against 
England,  which  came  to  nothing.  J  Elizabeth  now 
came  to  be  looked  on  as  the  heatl  of  the  Reformed 
party  throughout  Europe,  and  she  gave  some  help  at 
different  times  to  the  Reformers  both  in  France  and 
in  the  Netherlands.  The  war  between  England  and 


264  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CHAP 

Spain  went  on  during  all  Elizabeth's  reign  ;  but  when, 
on  her  death  in  1603,  the  Crowns  of  England  and 
Scotland  were  united  in  Mary's  son  James,  Sixth  ol 
Scotland  and  First  of  England,  the  policy  of  England 
altogether  changed.  For  James  truckled  to  Spain, 
and  England  for  a  long  time  lost  the  position  which 
she  had  before  held  in  Europe.  The  reign  of  his 
successor  Charles  the  First  was  mainly  taken  up  with 
internal  affairs,  and  the  latter  years  of  it  with  the 
great  Civil  War,  which  lead  to  the  King's  beheading 
in  1649.  All  this  time  is  one  of  the  most  important 
parts  of  the  history  both  of  England  and  Scotland, 
but  it  is  mainly  taken  up  with  the  internal  affairs  of 
the  two  countries,  which  have  comparatively  little  to 
do  with  the  general  course  of  things  in  Europe.  But 
the  union  of  England  and  Scotland  under  one  King 
had  this  effect,  that  Scotland  was  no  longer  the  enemy 
of  England,  nor  could  it  any  longer  be  an  ally  of 
France  in  wars  between  France  and  England. 

20.  Northern  Europe. — It  was  in  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century  that  the  attempt  to  join  to- 
gether the  three  Scandinavian  kingdoms  of  Denmark, 
Norway,  and  Sweden,  which  had  never  been  carried 
out  for  any  long  time  together,  came  wholly  to  an  end. 
Christian  the  Second,  called  Christian  the  Cruel,  who 
became  King  of  Denmark  and  Norway  in  1513, 
became  King  of  Sweden  also  in  1520;  but  his  oppres- 
sion provoked  revolts  in  all  his  dominions.  In  1523 
he  was  driven  out  of  both  Denmark  and  Sweden, 
The  Swedes  chose  as  their  King  the  famous  Gustavus 
Vasa,  who  had  been  their  leader  in  driving  out  Chris- 
tian. He  brought  in  the  doctrines  of  Luther,  but 
less  change  was  made  in  the  order  and  government  of 
the  Church  in  Sweden  than  anywhere  else  except  in 
England.  Under  Gustavus  Sweden  began  to  rise  to  a 
much  higher  position  in  Europe  than  it  had  ever  held 
before.  He  died  in  1560,  and  the  Kings  who  followed 
him  were  of  no  great  account  till  the  famous  Gustavut 


xiii.  1  KUSS/A    AND  POLAND.  26* 

Adolphus,  who  began  to  reign  in  i6ir.  Of  him  we 
shall  hear  more  in  the  history  of  the  great  wars  in 
Germany.  On  his  death  in  1632  came  his  daughter 
Christina,  in  whose  time  a  part  of  Norway,  namely  the 
province  of Jamtdand,  with  other  districts,  and  the  isie 
of  Gotland,  were  won  from  Denmark.  All  this  while 
Denmark  and  Norway  remained  under  the  same  King. 
Under  Frederick  the  First,  who  reigned  from  1523  to 
I533>  tne  Lutheran  religion  was  established  in  Den- 
mark ;  but  after  his  death  there  were  disputes  about 
the  succession  to  the  Crown,  and  wars  with  the  city  of 
Liibeck.  Under  Frederick  the  Second,  who  reigned 
from  1559  to  1588,  the  free  people  of  Ditmarschen, 
who  had  all  this  time  kept  on  their  old  freedom  at  that 
end  of  Germany  just  as  the  Forest  Cantons  did  at  the 
other  end,  and  who  had  more  than  once  defeated  the 
Counts  of  Holstein  and  Kings  of  Denmark,  were  at 
at  last  conquered.  His  son  Christian  the  Fourth 
reigned  from  1588  to  1648,  and  we  shall  hear  of  him 
again. 

21.  Russia  and  Poland.  —  In  Poland  and 
Lithuania  the  descendants  of  Jagellon  went  on  reign- 
ing till  nearly  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Under  them  Poland  was  at  the  height  of  its  power, 
and  it  formed  one  of  the  greatest  states  of  Europe, 
Its  territory  now  stretched  far  to  the  east,  and  took  in 
large  countries  which  had  once  been  part  of  Russia, 
and  which  have  since  become  part  of  Russia  again. 
In  the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the 
Russian  power  began  to  rise  again,  parts  of  these  terri- 
tories were  won  back  again,  and  from  that  time  the 
Polish  frontier  has  commonly  gone  back.  But  before 
this,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Teutonic  Order  was  greatly 
humbled  in  1466,  when  the  Knights  had  to  give  up 
the  western  part  of  Prussia  to  Poland,  and  to  hold  the 
eastern  part  as  a  fief  of  the  Polish  Crown,  This  led 
to  a  further  change  in  1525.  The  Grand-Master 
Ai2)ert  of  Brandenburg  had  become  a  Lutheran.  By  a 


266  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CHAP 

treaty  with  Sigfsmund  the  First  of  Poland,  the  Teutonic 
order  was  abolished  as  a  sovereign  power,  and  Alber 
became  hereditary  Duke  of  Prussia,  holding  his  duchy, 
which  took  in  East  Prussia  only,  as  a  fief  of  Poland. 
After  a  few  generations  the  Duchy  of  Prussia  and  the 
Mark  or  Electorate  of  Brandenburg  were,  in  1611, 
joined  together.  Thus  began  the  power  of  the  House  o( 
HoJienzollern  as  sovereigns  of  Brandenburg  and  Prussia, 
which  has  gone  on  so  greatly  growing  to  our  own  times. 
In  1657,  under  Frederick  William  the  First,  who  was 
called  the  Great  Elector,  the  Duchy  of  Prussia  became 
independent  of  the  Crown  of  Poland,  just  as  the 
Duchy  of  Aquitaine  three  hundred  years  before  be- 
came independent  of  the  Crown  of  France.  In  1701, 
to  go  on  some  way  beyond  our  present  time,  the  Great 
Elector's  son  Frederick  took  the  title  of  King  of 
Prussia  instead  of  Duke.  Thus  the  Electors  of  Bran- 
denburg, besides  their  possessions  in  Germany,  held 
the  Duchy  or  Kingdom  of  Prussia,  which  was  cut  off 
from  their  Electorate  by  that  part  of  Prussia  which 
had  been  given  up  to  Poland.  The  other  possessions 
of  the  Order  to  the  North  were  treated  in  nearly  the 
same  way.  In  1561  the  Grand-Master  of  Livonia, 
Gotthard  Kettler,  who  had  also  turned  Lutheran,  gave 
up  all  the  dominions  of  the  Order  to  Poland,  except 
Curland,  which  was  made  into  a  Duchy  for  himself, 
just  as  Prussia  was  for  Albert.  But  in  the  one  case,  out 
of  the  treaty  with  Albert  arose  one  of  the  great  states 
of  Europe,  while  out  of  the  treaty  with  Kettler  nothing 
came  but  long  wars  between  Sweden  and  Poland  for 
the  lands  east  of  the  Baltic,  till  in  the  end  they  were 
all  swallowed  up  by  Russia.  But  long  before  this 
Russia  was  making  great  advances.  John  or  Ivan  the 
Fourth,  known  r.s  Ivan  the  Terrible,  reigned  from  1533 
to  1584,  and  hij  doings  towards  his  own  subjects  were 
among  the  strangest  in  history.  But,  besides  wars  with 
Sweden  and  Poland  waged  with  various  success,  he 
altogether  overthrew  the  power  of  the  Moguls  or 


xui.]  TURKE  Y  AND  HUNG  AN  V.  26} 

Tartars   of   Kasan,  who  had  once   held    Russia    in 

bondage ;  he  took  Astrakhan  also,  and  so  extended 
the  Russian  dominions  to  the  Caspian  Sea.  He  was 
the  first  of  the  Russian  princes  who  took  the  title  of 
Czar.  Some  say  that  this  name  is  simply  a  Slavonic 
word  meaning  King,  while  according  to  others  it  is  the 
Russian  form  of  Ccesar;  anyhow  it  is  certain  that  the 
sovereigns  of  Russia,  who  have  latterly  been  called 
Emperors,  have  always  wished,  as  the  most  powerful 
princes  belonging  to  the  Eastern  Church,  to  be  looked 
on  as  successors  of  the  Eastern  Emperors.  Russia 
was  now  a  powerful  state,  but  it  was  cut  off  from  the 
Baltic  by  the  Poles  and  Swedes,  and  from  the  Black 
Sea  by  the  Tartars  of  Crim  or  Crimea,  so  that 
Russia,  had  no  havens  except  on  the  Caspian  and  the 
White  Sea.  It  was  by  the  White  Sea,  from  the  port  oi 
Archangel,  that  Russia  now  began  to  have  trade  with 
England  and  the  other  nations  of  the  West.  In  1589 
the  old  line  of  Ruric  came  to  an  end,  and  great  con- 
fusions followed,  among  which  the  Poles  were  able  in 
1605-  to  place  a  pretender,  who  professed  to  be  the 
true  heir,  on  the  Russian  throne.  But  in  1613  the 
Russians  chose  Michael  Romanoff,  from  whom  the 
present  royal  family  springs  in  the  female  line,  and 
Russia  began  to  flourish  again,  though  it  had  to  wage 
wars  with  Sweden  and  Poland  with  various  success  to 
the  end  of  the  century.  In  1573  the  Poles  made 
their  crown  purely  elective,  instead  of  choosing,  as 
before,  from  the  royal  family.  Sometimes  they  chose 
a  native  Pole,  sometimes  a  foreign  prince ;  but  from 
this  time  all  power  came  into  the  hands  of  the  nobles, 
to  the  loss  both  of  the  King  and  of  the  people, 
and  Poland  began  to  go  down  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 

22.  Turkey  and  Hungary.— Under  Bajazet  tht 
Second,  the  successor  of  Mahomet  the  Conqueror,  the 
Ottoman  power  did  not  advance,  but  in  some  parts 
rather  fell  back.  In  his  time  a  new  Mahometam 


26S  77 fE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN. 

enemy  rose  to  the  east  of  him.  This  was  the  modern 
kingdom  of  Persia,  which  rose  again,  very  much  as 
Persia  had  risen  again  under  Artaxerxes  in  the  third 
century,  by  the  preaching  of  a  national  religion-.  Only 
this  time  it  was  not  the  preaching  of  the  old  Persian 
religion,  but  that  of  the  Shiah  sect  of  Mahometanism. 
Thus  the  Turks  and  Persians  were  not  only  political 
enemies,  but  they  looked  upon  each  other  as  heretics. 
The  new  dynasty,  which  began  with  Shah  Ismael  in 
1501,  was  known  as  that  of  the  Sophis.  Endless  wars 
now  followed  between  the  Turks  and  the  Persians; 
meanwhile  Selim  the  Inflexible,  who  reigned  from  1512 
to  1520,  added  Syria  and  Egypt  to  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire, and  obtained  a  surrender  of  the  Caliphate  from 
the  nominal  Abbasside  Caliph  at  Cairo.  Then  came 
Suleiman — that  is,  Solomon — the  Lawgiver,  who  reigned 
from  1520  to  1566,  and  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the 
Sultans.  It  was  in  his  time  that  Francis  of  France 
made  alliance  with  the  Turks  against  the  Empire. 
Under  him  the  Ottomans  made  great  conquests.  In 
1521  he  took  Belgrade;  in  1522  the  Knights  of  Saint 
John  were  driven  off  the  island  of  Rhodes,  after  which 
the  Emperor  Charles  gave  them  the  isle  of  Malta, 
which  they  successfully  defended  against  the  Turks  in 
a  great  siege  in  1565.  But  meanwhile  Suleiman  con- 
quered a  large  part  of  Hungary.  In  1526  Leuns  tht 
Second,  King  of  Hungary,  was  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Mohacs,  after  which  the  crown  passed  in  the  end, 
though  not  without  a  good  deal  of  opposition,  to 
Lewis's  brother-in-law,  Ferdinand  Archduke  of  Austria, 
who  was  afterwards  Emperor.  But  the  greater  part  of 
the  country  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks,  and 
Buda  became  the  seat  of  a  Turkish  Pasha.  The 
Hungarian  Crown  has  ever  since  been  held  by  the 
Archdukes  of  Austria.  It  was  in  the  course  of  these 
Hungarian  wars  that  Suleiman  made  his  way  into 
Germany,  and  besieged  Vienna.  He  had  also  wars 
with  the  Empire  in  other  parts,  as  along  the  coast  oJf 


xni.]  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'    WAR.  269 

Africa,  where  the  Emperor  Charles  at  one  time  took 
Tunis.  And  in  1543  the  Turkish  fleet  was  actually 
brought  by  the  Most  Christian  King  into  the  waters  oi 
Italy  and  Provence,  where  Nizza  oi  Nice  was  in  vain 
besieged  by  the  Mahometans.  Suleiman  was  the  last 
of  the  great  line  of  Sultans  who  had  raised  the  Otto- 
mans to  such  power.  After  his  death,  though  the 
Turks  still  made  some  conquests,  they  no  longer 
threatened  the  whole  world  as  they  had  done  before. 
In  the  reign  of  the  next  Sultan,  Seltm,  the  Turks 
gained  the  island  of  Cyprus  and  lost  the  battle  of 
Lepanto  ;  and  from  this  time  they  had  constant  wars 
with  the  Persians  to  the  east,  and  with  the  Poles  and 
with  the  Emperors,  in  their  character  of  Kings  of 
Hungary,  to  the  north. 

23.  The  Thirty  Years'  War. — We  now  come 
to  the  great  war  which  took  up  all  the  later  years  of 
this  period,  which  had  Germany  for  its  centre,  but  in 
which  most  of  the  nations  of  Europe  had  more  or  less 
share.  This  is  called  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  It 
began  in  Bohemia,  where  the  intolerance  of  the  King, 
the  Emperor  Ferdinand  the  Second,  provoked  a  revolt. 
In  1619,  just  about  the  time  that  Ferdinand  was 
crowned  Emperor,  he  was  deposed  in  Bohemia,  and 
the  Elector  Palatine  Frederick,  a  Protestant  Prince, 
was  elected  in  his  place.  It  was  like  the  old  wars 
of  the  Hussites  beginning  again.  The  next  year 
Frederick  was  driven  out  of  Bohemia,  and  he  pre- 
sently lost  his  own  dominions  as  well  Meanwhile,  at 
the  other  end  of  Ferdinand's  dominions,  the  Pro- 
testants of  Hungary  revolted,  and  for  a  while  turned 
him  out  of  that  kingdom  also.  But  the  great  scene  of 
the  war  was  Germany,  where  it  was  first  of  all  carried 
on  between  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  princes  within 
the  country ;  but  gradually,  as  the  Emperor,  with  his 
famous  generals  Tilly  and  Wallmstein,  seemed  likely 
to  swallow  up  all  Germany,  other  powers  began  to  step 
in.  The  firs:  was  Christian  the  Fourth  King  of  Deiv 


z7o  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CHAP 

mark,  who  was  himself  a  Prince  of  the  Empire  for  his 
German  dominions.  In  1625  he  became  the  chief  oi 
the  Protestant  League,  but  he  was  soon  driven  out  and 
obliged  to  make  peace.  Presently,  in  1630,  a  greater 
power  stepped  in  from  the  North.  This  was  the 
famous  Gustavus  Adolphus  King  of  Sweden,  who  be- 
came for  twv>  years  the  head  of  the  Protestants,  and 
carried  on  war  with  wonderful  success  for  a  short  time 
till  he  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Lutzen  in  1632.  In 
this  war  Gustavus  showed  himself  one  of  the  greatest 
leaders  that  ever  commanded  an  army.  By  this  time 
other  nations  were  beginning  to  take  part  in  the  war. 
England  never  formally  joined  in  it,  but  there  was,  as 
was  natural,  a  strong  feeling  in  England  on  behalf  of 
the  Protestant  cause,  all  the  more  so  as  Frederick's 
wife  Elizabeth  was  a  daughter  of  James  the  First,  and 
many  Englishmen  and  Scotsmen  served  in  the  Swedish 
army.  France  top,  under  Cardinal  Richelieu,  began  to 
meddle,  first  making  a  treaty  with  Gustavus  and  help- 
ing him  with  money,  and  afterwards,  in  1635,  joining 
openly  in  the  war.  Richelieu  had  put  down  the 
special  privileges  of  the  Protestants  in  France  ;  yet  he 
did  not  scruple  to  make  a  league  with  the  Protestants 
in  Germany  and  with  the  Protestant  powers  of  Sweden 
and  Holland,  in  a  war  which  had  begun  as  a  war  for 
religious  liberty  in  Bohemia  and  Germany.  From  this 
time  it  changed  into  a  war  far  the  aggrandizement  of 
France,  all  the  more  so  as  most  of  the  Protestant 
states  of  Germany  made  peace  with  the  Emperor  in 
1635.  Meanwhile  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  died  in 
1637,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Ferdinand  the 
7hird.  The  war  went  on  for  a  while  in  most  parts  ot 
Europe  with  various  success,  the  chief  leader  in  Ger- 
many on  the  Protestant  side  being  Duke  Bernhard  oj 
Weimar.  In  1642  the  great  minister  of  France,  Car- 
dinal Richelieu,  died,  and  his  power  passed  to  another 
Cardinal,  Mazarin.  In  1643  Lewis  the  Thirteenth 
died,  and  then  began  the  long  reign  of  Lavis  tht 


xiii.]  THE  PEACE  OF  WESTPHALIA.  271 

Fourteenth,  who  was  only  five  years  old  when  he  came 
to  the  crown.  Thus  the  latter  part  of  the  war  went 
on  under  a  different  Emperor  and  different  sovereigns 
both  of  France  and  of  Sweden  from  those  under  whom 
it  had  begun.  In  this  latter  part  of  the  war  the 
French  arms,  under  their  great  leaders  Turenne  and 
the  Prince  of  Conde,  began  to  be  decidedly  successful. 
At  last,  after  long  negotiations,  peace  was  made  in 
1648. 

24.  The  Peace  of  "Westphalia. — The  peace 
that  was  now  made,  which  is  known  as  the  Peace  of 
Westphalia,  made  some  important  changes  in  Europe. 
In  Germany  the  two  religions  were  put  quite  on  a  level, 
that  is  to  say,  the  government  of  each  state  might 
establish  which  religion  it  chose.  But  the  country  had 
been  utterly  ruined  by  the  long  war,  and  whatever 
traces  were  left  either  of  authority  in  the  Empire  or  of 
freedom  in  the  people  quite  died  out.  From  this  time 
Germany  long  remained  a  mere  lax  confederation  of 
petty  despotisms  and  oligarchies,  with  hardly  any 
national  feeling.  Its  boundaries  too  were  cut  short  in 
various  ways.  The  independence  of  the  two  free  Con- 
federations at  the  two  ends  of  the  Empire,  those  of 
Switzerland  and  the  United  Provinces,  which  had  long 
been  practically  cut  off  from  the  Empire,  was  now 
formally  acknowledged.  And,  what  was  far  more  im- 
portant, the  two  foreign  kingdoms  which  had  had  the 
chief  share  in  the  war,  France  and  Sweden,  obtained 
posesssions  within  the  Empire,  and  moreover,  as 
guarantors  or  sureties  of  the  peace,  they  obtained  a 
general  right  of  meddling  in  its  affairs.  Sweden  re- 
ceived territories  in  northern  Germany,  both  on  the 
Baltic  and  on  the  Ocean,  part  of  Pomerania,  the  city 
of  Wismar,  and  the  Bishopricks  of  Verden  and 
Bremen.  The  free  Hanseatic  city  of  Bremen  remained 
independent,  as  well  as  Liibeck  and  Hamburg;  but 
these  were  now  the  only  remnants  of  the  famous  Hah- 
seatic  League  which  had  once  been  so  great.  But  foi 


272  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.   [CHAP,  xin 

these  possessions  the  Kings  of  Sweden  became  Princes 
of  the  Empire,  like  the  Kings  of  Denmark  and 
Hungary,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  any  other 
princes  who  had  dominions  both  in  the  Empire  and 
out  of  it.  But  the  territories  which  were  given  to 
France  were  cut  off  from  the  Empire  altogether.  The 
right  of  France  to  the  Three  Lotharingian  Bishopricks, 
which  had  been  seized  nearly  a  hundred  years  before, 
was  now  formally  acknowledged,  and,  besides  this,  the 
possessions  and  rights  of  the  House  of  Austria  in 
JElsass,  the  German  land  between  the  Rhine  and  the 
Vosges,  called  in  France  Alsace,  were  given  to  France. 
The  free  city  of  Strassburg  and  other  places  in  Elsass 
still  remained  independent,  but  the  whole  of  South 
Germany  now  lay  open  to  France.  This  was  the 
greatest  advance  that  France  had  yet  made  at  the 
expense  of  the  Empire.  Within  Germany  itself  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg  also  received  a  large  increase 
of  territory.  The  war  in  Germany  was  now  over,  but 
the  war  between  France  and  Spain  still  went  on,  till 
1659.  Then  France  gained  Roussillon,  and  a  few 
places  in  Lorraine  and  the  Netherlands,  and  Dunkirk 
was  given  to  England,  much  as  England  had  at  other 
times  held  Calais  and  Boulogne  and  afterwards  Gibral- 
tar. In  the  next  year  Lewis  the  Fourteenth  seized  the 
little  principality  of  Orange,  but  this  was  afterwards 
given  back. 

25.  European  Settlements  in  the  East. — 
We  have  now  come  to  the  time  when  European  his- 
tory begins  to  spread  beyond  Europe  itself  and  those 
parts  of  Asia  and  Africa  which  had  immediate  deal- 
ings with  Europe.  In  the  last  years  of  the  fifteenth 
century  new  worlds  were  opened,  both  in  the  East  and 
in  the  West,  and  gradually  all  those  European  nations 
which  had  any  power  by  sea  began  to  trade,  to  con- 
quer, and  to  make  settlements,  in  parts  of  the  world 
which  were  never  before  heard  of.  In  this  way  Eng- 
land, France,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Holland  have  all, 


EUROPEAN  SETTLEMENTS  IN  THE  EAST.  273 

like  the  old  Greek  commonwealths,  planted  colonies  in 
various  parts  of  the  world.  But  there  has  been  a  great 
difference  between  the  ways  of  colonizing  in  the  two 
times.  An  old  Gr;ek  colony  was  an  independent  state 
from  the  beginning ;  it  owed  a  certain  respect  to  the 
mother  city,  but  it  was  in  no  way  subject  to  it;  but  the 
colonies  planted  by  European  kingdoms  have  been 
looked  on  as  parts  of  the  dominions  of  the  mother 
country,  and  have  been  held  as  dependent  provinces. 
The  colonists  therefore,  when  they  have  got  strong 
enough,  have  commonly  thrown  off  the  yoke  of  the 
mother  country,  and  have  made  themselves  into  inde- 
pendent states.  Then  again  we  may  make  some  dis- 
tinctions among  the  different  kinds  of  colonies.  In 
some  places  the  European  settlers  have  gradually  killed 
or  driven  out  the  native  inhabitants,  much  as  the 
English  did  with  the  Welsh  when  they  first  came  into 
Britain.  This  has  been  the  case  with  most  of  the 
colonies  of  England.  The  English  settlers  have  often 
been  largely  mixed  with  settlers  of  other  European 
nations  and  even  with  slaves  from  other  lands,  but 
they  have  hardly  mixed  at  all  with  the  natives.  In 
other  cases,  as  has  happened  in  most  of  the  colonies 
of  Spain,  the  Europeans  and  the  natives  have  mixed 
a  great  deal,  and  things  have  been  somewhat  as  they 
were  in  the  time  of  the  conquests  of  Rome ;  that  is  to 
say,  large  bodies  of  men  speak  Spanish  who  are  not 
Spaniards  by  blood.  Then  there  is  a  third  class  of 
European  possessions  in  distant  lands,  where  Euro- 
peans bear  rule  over  the  natives,  but  neither  drive 
them  out  nor  mix  with  them,  and  indeed  cannot  be 
strictly  said  to  settle  or  colonize  at  all.  Such  is  the 
great  dominion  of  England  in  India,  which  is  some- 
thing quite  different  from  her  colonies  in  America, 
Africa,  and  Australia.  Possessions  of  both  sorts 
began  in  the  times  with  which  we  have  now  to  do. 
The  colonies  strictly  so  called  were  chiefly  planted 
in  America,  while  dominions  of  the  other  kind  wer« 


274  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPATN.  [CHAP 

chiefly  gained  in  the  distant  parts  of  Asia  and  Africa, 
The  first  European  state  which  began  this  course  ol 
distant  dominion  was  Portugal ;  of  this  we  have  seen 
the  beginning  in  the  time  of  Don  Henry.  Before  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century  Portugal  had  made  a  great 
number  of  settlements  along  the  west  coast  of  Africa  ag 
far  south  as  the  Equator.  Then,  when  Vasco  da  Gama 
found  out  the  passage  to  India  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  the  Portuguese  carried  on  their  discoveries  and 
settlements  along  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  along  the 
coast  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  on  into  Southern  India 
and  into  the  peninsulas  and  islands  beyond  India. 
This  quite  changed  the  course  of  trade  with  India  and 
the  far  East  generally.  Hitherto  trade  had  gone  by 
way  of  Alexandria  and  Venice ;  now  it  went  by  the 
longer  but  easier  way  round  the  Cape.  Throughout 
the  sixteenth  century  the  Portuguese  had  a  far  greater 
Eastern  dominion  than  any  other  European  power ; 
indeed  they  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  any  Euro- 
pean rivals  in  Asia  at  all.  The  Spaniards  held  only 
the  Philippine  Islands,  and  the  settlements  of  the  Eng- 
glish  and  Dutch  and  other  nations  did  not  begin  till 
the  seventeenth  century.  Russia  indeed,  after  she  had 
overthrown  the  Tartar  dominion,  went  on  to  win  a  vast 
territory  in  Northern  Asia,  the  great  land  of  Siberia. 
But  this  was  not  gained  by  sea  ;  it  was  the  mere  exten- 
sion of  European  Russia  by  land  to  the  east,  and  the 
cold  and  profitless  country  of  Siberia  could  never  be 
compared  with  the  rich  possessions  of  other  European 
nations  in  Asia  and  Africa. 

26.  Discovery  of  America. — But  the  land  of 
European  colonization,  as  distinguished  from  mere 
dominion,  the  land  in  which  European  settlers  have 
grown  up  into  independent  nations,  is  the  New 
World,  America.  It  was  in  the  last  years  of  the 
fifteenth  century  that  this  New  World  began  to  be 
opened  to  the  men  of  the  old.  It  has  been  thought 
that  th:  old  Northmen  who  settled  in  Iceland  touched 


Ain.y  THE  SPANISH  COLONIES.  27^ 

en  some  parts  of  the  coasts  of  North  America,  and  U 
is  quite  certain  that  they  made  a  settlement  in  G*een- 
laiid,  which  lasted  till  the  fourteenth  century.  But,  i' 
they  ever  found  out  any  of  the  lands  in  which  the 
great  Spanish  and  English  colonies  were  afterwards 
planted,  they  certainly  made  no  lasting  settlements 
in  them.  The  New  World  was  first  found  out  in 
1492  by  Christopfier  Columbus,  a  Genoese  in  the 
service  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  who  was  not  seek- 
ing a  world  to  the  west,  but,  now  that  the  earth  was 
known  to  be  round,  was  trying  to  find  a  westward  road 
to  India.  Thence  the  lands  which  he  first  discovered 
came  to  be  called  the  West  Indies.  These  were  the 
islands  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  one  of  the  first  of 
those  on  which  he  landed  he  called  Hispaniola  or  New 
Spain.  It  is  also  called  Saint  Domingo  or  Hayti.  Bu» 
Columbus  did  not  land  on  the  continent  till  1498,  and 
before  that  time  Sebastian  Cabot,  a  Venetian  in  thi 
service  of  Henry  the  Seventh  of  England,  had  made 
his  way  to  the  mainland  of  North  America  much 
further  to  the  north.  Thus  America  was  discovered  by 
citizens  of  the  maritime  commonwealths  of  Italy,  thougli 
they  were  acting,  not  in  the  service  of  their  own  cities, 
whose  fleets  never  got  beyond  the  Mediterranean,  but 
in  that  of  the  Kings  who  commanded  the  Ocean.  This 
marks  how  the  course  of  trade  and  of  dominion  was 
now  changing.  And  the  new  continent  took  its  name 
of  America  from  a  third  Italian,  Amerigo  Vespucci^  who 
at  one  time  was  thought  to  have  reached  the  mainland 
before  Columbus.  He  too  was  in  the  service  of  Spain : 
thus  it  was  that,  though  Italy  had  no  part  in  the  dis- 
covery of  America,  yet  Italians  had  the  chief  pait 
in  it. 

27.  The  Spanish  Colonies.  —  Thus  the  New 
World  was  found  out,  and  all  Europeans  then  iield 
that  they  had  a  perfect  right  to  seize  upon  any  coun- 
tries beyond  the  bounds  of  Christendom,  and  to  do 
pretty  much  as  they  pleased  with  the  people.  Th; 


276  THE  GREATNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CHVP. 

Spaniards  in  this  way  conquered  the  rich  lards  of 
Mexico  and  Pent,  where  they  found  gold,  much  as  in 
old  times  the  Phoenicians  had  found  gold  in  Spain  itseltl 
Those  lands  had  reached  a  high  degree  of  civiliza 
tion  and  regular  government  without  any  dealings  with 
the  civilized  nations  of  Europe  and  Asia.  And  they 
were  without  many  things,  such  as  iron,  horses,  and 
the  use  of  alphabetic  writing,  without  which  no  Christ- 
ian or  Mahometan  people  would  have  thought  it 
possible  to  get  on.  They  were  of  course  heathens, 
and  the  idolatry  of  the  Mexicans  was  of  a  specially  horri- 
ble and  bloody  kind.  The  Spaniards  dealt  with  the 
natives  in  a  way  not  unlike  that  in  which  the  first 
Saracens  had  dealt  with  Christians  and  heathens,  mix- 
ing up  the  notions  of  conquest  and  conversion  in  a 
strange  way.  But  it  is  certain  that  no  Mahometans 
ever  treated  their  Christian  subjects  so  badly  as  the 
Spaniards  did  the  natives  in  America.  At  last,  when  it 
was  found  that  they  could  not  do  the  hard  work  of  the 
mines,  negro  slaves  from  Africa  were  brought  in  to 
work  in  their  place.  The  Portuguese  in  their  African 
settlements  had  made  many  negro  slaves,  and  thus  the 
slavery  of  the  black  man  in  the  New  World  began, 
which  went  on  for  a  long  time  in  all  the  European 
colonies,  and  which  still  goes  on  in  Brazil  and  the 
Spanish  Islands.  And  thus  too  began,  what  was  yet 
worse  than  slavery  itself,  the  trade  in  slaves,  the  stealing 
men  and  bringing  them  over  from  Africa,  which  is  now 
forbidden  by  all  civilized  nations.  Mexico  was  con- 
quered by  Hernando  Cortez  between  1519  and  1521, 
and  Peru  by  Francisco  Pizarro  between  1532  and 
1536.  And,  shameful  as  was  the  greediness  and 
cruelty  shown  by  the  Spaniards,  there  was  something 
very  wonderful  in  the  overthrow  of  such  great  powers 
by  such  small  bodies  of  men.  But  a  wide  difference 
must  be  made  between  the  conquest  of  Mexico  and 
that  of  Peru.  For  Cortez,  though  he  did  several  very 
cruel  dc«  ds,  really  tried  to  convert  and  civilize  f.ho 


90       Longitude  W.   60  from  Greenwich  30 


SPANISH  &  PORTUGUESE 
COLONIES 

IN  THE  I6THCENTURY 

Spanish  Colonies  {^        ^]  P  E  R  U 

|  

Portuguese  d  o.     [  I  BRAZIL 


Long.  East  30  from  Greenwich     60 


Fl»k  &  See.N.-y. 


xin.]  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  277 

countries  which  he  conquered,  while  Pizarro  seems  to 
have  had  no  objects  of  this  kind.  Thus  began  the 
great  Spanish  dominion  in  America,  which  has  grown 
up  into  several  independent  nations  speaking  the 
Spanish  tongue. 

28.  French,  English,  and  other  Colonies. — 
The  next  people  after  the  Spaniards  who  began  to  settle 
in  North  America  were  the  French,  and  the  next  were 
the  English,  and  the  settlements  of  both  nations  had  a 
good  deal  to  do  with  the  religious  dissensions  at  home. 
The  first  attempt  at  a  French  settlement  was  made 
by  Huguenots  in  1562,  in  the  land  to  which  they  gave 
the  name  of  Carolina,  but  it  was  not  till  1607  that  any 
lasting  French  settlements  were  made  in  America. 
From  that  time  the  French  gradually  occupied,  or  laid 
claim  to,  a  vast  territory  in  North  America,  taking  in  a 
great  deal  of  the  western  part  of  the  present  United 
States  and  of  the  lands  to  the  north  of  them.  These 
lands  were  called  Canada  and  Louisiana,  but  in  a  much 
wider  sense  than  those  names  bear  now.  These  settle- 
ments of  the  French  in  North  America  have  all  passed 
either  to  England  or  to  the  United  States,  but  some 
of  their  colonies  in  the  West  Indies,  and  their  small 
possessions  in  South  America  at  Cayenne,  remain  French 
still.  The  English  sailors,  Gilbert,  Drake,  and  others, 
kept  making  discoveries  and  waging  war  with  the 
Spaniards  during  the  whole  reign  of  Elizabeth,  and  in 
1585  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  tried  to  begin  the  colony  of 
Virginia,  but  it  was  not  really  settled  till  1606.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  the  English  colonies  in  North 
America,  which  have  grown  up  into  the  United  States. 
New  England  was  next  colonized,  and  afterwards 
Maryland :  both  of  these  were  largely  peopled  by 
those  men  in  England  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
state  of  religion,  and  who  were  often  persecuted  for 
not  conforming  to  the  law  in  such  matters.  For  no 
one  as  yet  thought  of  allowing  perfect  freedom  to  all 
religions;  each  country,  Catholic  or  Protestant  01 


<f?S  THE  GREA  TNE^S  OF  SPAIN.  [CHAP 

whatever  it  was,  punished  with  penalties,  greater  o? 
less,  all  those  who  did  not  conform  to  the  established 
religion.  So  men  tried  to  get  more  freedom  by 
settling  in  distant  lands.  Thus  the  French  Huguenots 
tried  to  settle  in  America;  and  thus,  amongst  the  English 
Colonies,  New  England  was  largely  peopled  by  Puritans, 
that  is,  zealous  Protestants  who  thought  that  reform  in 
the  Church  of  England  had  not  gone  far  enough.  Mary- 
land, on  the  other  hand,  was  largely  settled  by  Roman 
Catholics,  who  followed  the  Pope  and  the  Council  of 
Trent,  and  held  that  the  Church  of  England  had  gone 
wrong  in  having  any  Reformation  at  all.  The  English 
colonies  in  America  were  all  held  to  be  parts  of  the 
English  dominions;  but  most  of  them  had  free  consti- 
tutions, and  they  were  able  to  do  much  as  they  pleased 
in  their  own  local  affairs.  Meanwhile  the  Dutch,  who, 
having  freed  themselves  from  Spain,  were  fast  driving 
the  Portuguese  out  of  the  commerce  of  the  East  Indies, 
settled  in  North  America  also,  and  founded  a  colony 
called  New  Netherland  between  Maryland  and  New 
England.  In  South  America,  besides  the  French,  the 
English  and  Dutch  had  some  small  possessions.  But 
the  other  great  South  American  power  besides  Spain 
was  Portugal.  For  the  Portuguese  founded  the  great 
colony  of  Brazil,  after  some  opposition  from  the 
English,  Dutch,  and  French.  The  Portuguese  began 
to  settle  in  those  parts  about  1531,  and  after  1660  they 
had  Brazil  wholly  to  themselves. 

29.  Learning,  Art,  and  Science.  —  All  this 
time  the  mind  of  man  was  making  great  progress  in  all 
parts.  The  revival  of  learning  in  the  fifteenth  century 
did  something  to  check  original  genius  in  Italy,  for 
all  men  took  once  more  to  writing  in  Latin.  But  in 
the  sixteenth  century  there  were  again  great  Italian 
writers  both  in  prose  and  verse,  and  the  time  from 
the  later  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  till  that  of  the 
sixteenth  was  the  great  time  of  Italian  painting.  Learn- 
ing also  spread  through  all  parts  of  the  West,  and  there 


xiii.]  LEARNING  AND  LITER  A  TURE.  279 

wtre  great  scholars  in  most  countries,  in  none  more 
than  in  the  United  Provinces  after  they  had  won  their 
freedom.  There  too  men  began  to  give  special  heed 
to  the  Law  of  Nations,  that  is,  to  the  rules  by  which 
different  countries  hold  themselves  to  be  bound  in 
their  dealings  with  one  another.  In  this  time  also  men 
began  to  have  truer  notions  on  matters  of  physical 
science ;  to  learn,  for  instance,  that  the  earth  goes 
round  the  sun,  instead  of  the  sun  going  round  the 
earth.  In  religious  matters  too  the  endless,  contro- 
versies, both  between  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the 
Protestants  and  between  the  different  sects  of  Pro- 
testants, brought  out  a  great  number  of  learned  and 
zealous  theological  writers  on  all  sides.  And  this  was  not 
only  a  time  of  learning,  but  also  of  original  genius,  for, 
besides  Italy,  it  was  the  age  of  the  greatest  poets  of 
England,  Spain,  and  Portugal.  France  perhaps  lagged 
a  little  behind  in  poetry,  but  she  had  many  good 
writers  in  prose.  Generally  throughout  Europe,  men 
were  taking  to  their  own  languages  for  poetry  and  his- 
tory, though  some  great  histories  were  still  written  in 
Latin,  and  Latin  was  still  the  common  language  of 
learning  and  science.  Men  also  began  to  learn  more 
of  each  other's  languages,  and  the  Italian  language 
especially  was  much  admired  and  studied  in  other 
countries.  In  Germany  the  standard  of  language 
was  fixed  by  Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible,  which 
had  this  effect,  that  the  High-Dutch  in  which  he  wrote 
it  became  the  received  tongue  of  Germany,  while  the 
Low-Dutch,  though  the  natural  tongue  of  so  large  a 
part  of  the  country,  came  to  be  looked  down  on  as  a, 
mere  vulgar  dialect.  But,  after  the  wretched  times  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  both  learning  and  native  litera- 
ture sadly  went  down.  Altogether,  the  time  from  the 
latter  years  of  the  fifteenth  century  to  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  was  one  of  the  most  fertile  times,  both 
in  great  scholars  and  in  great  writers  of  their  own 
tongues,  but  it  would  be  endless  to  try  to  set  theii 


*So  THE  GREA  TNESS  OF  SPAIN.  [CKA». 

names   down   here.      It  will   be   better   clone   in  the 
histories  of  their  particular  countries. 

30.  Summary. — In  this  peiiod  we  see  the  Em- 
pire practically  come  to  an  end.  In  strictness  there 
was  no  Emperor  after  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  the  Im- 
perial title  no  longer  carried  with  it  any  authority  in 
Italy,  and  not  much  in  Germany.  It  had  become 
little  more  than  a  title  of  honour  in  one  branch  of  the 
House  of  Austria,  while  the  greatest  power  in  Europe 
had  really  passed  away  to  the  other  branch  of  the 
House  of  Austria  which  held  Spain  and  its  dependent 
states.  At  the  beginning  of  the  period  Spain  de- 
cidedly held  the  first  place,  but  before  the  end  of  it, 
the  Spanish  power  greatly  lessened,  and  France,  by  the 
result  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  became  the  leading 
power  instead  of  Spain.  Italy  sank  into  a  mere 
dependency  of  Spain,  except  so  far  as  Venice  still 
fought  the  battles  of  Christendom  against  the  Turks. 
Germany,  after  taking  the  lead  in  the  Reformation, 
was  utterly  ruined  and  divided  by  the  Thirty  Years' 
War.  Sivitzetland  held  a  high  position  at  the  beginning 
of  the  period,  and  the  dominion  of  its  Cantons  in  the 
Romance  lands  began.  But,  before  the  end  of  the 
period,  the  reputation  of  the  Confederates  greatly  sunk 
through  the  practice  of  mercenary  service.  Hungary 
had  sunk,  partly  into  a  Turkish  province,  partly  into  a 
possession  of  the  House  of  Austria.  On  the  other 
hand,  several  old  powers  greatly  advanced  and  some 
new  ones  came  into  being.  England  and  Scotland, 
though  not  yet  united  into  one  kingdom,  became  one 
power  as  regards  other  nations.  Sweden  suddenly  grew 
into  a  first-class  power.  Poland  both  gained  and  lost, 
but  Russia,  her  neighbour  to  the  East,  grew  in  a 
manner  wh'ich,  in  her  own  part  of  the  world,  might 
almost  be  set  against  the  growth  of  Spain  in  the  West 
But  she  was  not  as  yet  of  any  importance  in  European 
affairs  generally.  The  power  of  the  Turks  rose  to  its 
height,  but  it  met  with  its  first  great  check  and  began 


XIH.]  SUMMARY.  281 

to  go  down.  Savoy,  losing  territory  to  the  north  of  tha 
Alps,  gained  territory  to  the  south,  and  thus  had  its 
course  marked  out  for  it  as  an  Italian  power.  The 
revolt  of  the  Netherlands  against  Spain  gave  birth  to 
the  new  commonwealth  of  the  United  Provinces,  which 
at  once  rose  to  the  rank  of  a  great  power.  The  treaty 
of  Poland  with  the  Teutonic  Knights  gave  birth  to  the 
new  power  of  Prussia,  though  Prussia  did  not  become 
great  till  the  United  Provinces  had  begun  to  go  down 
again.  And,  besides  these  shiftings  of  territory  and 
risings  and  fallings  of  various  powers,  we  have  in  this 
period  the  Reformation  and  all  its  results,  and  we  have 
the  great  stirring  of  men's  minds  which  partly  caused  it 
and  partly  followed  it.  And  we  have  the  discovery  of 
New  Worlds  both  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  and  the 
conquests  and  settlements  of  all  the  seafaring  powers 
of  Europe  in  those  distant  lands. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   GREATNESS   OF   FRANCE. 

\jrowth  of  the  power  of  France  ;  accession  of  Lewis  tJu 
Fourteenth;  his  character  and  absolute  dominion  (i) — 
his  aggressions  on  Spain  and  the  United  Provinces  ; 
league  against  France ;  defence  of  the  United  Pro* 
vinces  by  William  of  Orange  (l) — Peace  of  Nimwegen; 
acquisitions  of  France  (i)— Lewis  at  the  height  of  his 
power;  seizure  of  Strassburg  (2)— devastation  of  the 
Palatinate ;  second  league  against  Lewis ;  Peace  oj 
Ryswick  (2) — schemes  for  the  partition  of  tJie  Spanish 
dominions;  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  (3) — 
Lewis 's  persecution  of  the  Protestants;  losses  of  France 
by  his  reign  (3) — England  under  the  Parliament  and 
the  Protectorate ;  her  greatness  under  Cromwell;  wars 
with  the  United  Provinces  (4) — degradation  of  Eng- 
land under  Charles  and  James  the  Second;  wars  wit* 


tS2  THE  GREA  TNESS  OF  FKAXCE.         [CHAP. 

the  United  Provinces;  election  of  William  of  Orangt 
(4) — different  effects  of  tke  Revolution  in  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland;  union  of  the  Kingdoms  oj 
England  and  Scotland  (5) — share  of  Great  Britain  in 
the  wars  ivith  France;  accession  of  the  Hanoverian 
dynasty  (5) — reign  of  the  Emperor  Leopold;  growth 
of  Brandenburg  under  the  Great  Elector;  Prussia 
becomes  a  kingdom  (6) — affairs  of  Hungary;  siege  of 
Vienna  by  the  7  urks  ;  the  Hungarian  Crown  becomes 
hereditary ;  Peace  of  Carlowitz ;  reigns  of  Joseph  the 
First  and  Charles  the  Sixth;  advance  of  the  Austrian 
power;  Peace  of  Passarowitz  (6) — decay  of  the  Spanish 
power  (7) — affairs  of  Italy ;  advance  of  Savoy  (8) — 
wars  of  Venice  with  the  Turks ;  war  of  Candia;  con- 
quest and  loss  of  Peloponnesos  (9) — great  position  of 
the  United  Provinces ;  changes  in  their  form  cf  govern- 
ment;  Stadholdership  of  William  the  Third  (10) — 
greatest  extent  of  the pow-:r  of  Sweden;  Denmark  and 
Swe&n  become  absolute  monarchies  (n) — exploits  of 
Charles  the  Twelfth  ( 1 1) — loss  of  territory  and  lessening 
of  the  royal  power  in  Sweden  ;  comparison  of  Sweden 
and  Savoy  (il) — decline  of  Poland;  reigns  of  John 
Sobieski  and  Augustus  the  Strong  (12) — decline  of 
the  power  of  the  Turks;  the  tribute  of  children  no 
longer  levied;  advance  of  the  subject  nations  (13) 
— English  and  Dutch  settlements  in  India;  beginning 
of  the  East  India  Company  (14) — the  Mogul  Emperors 
(14)— English  settlements  in  Madras,  Bombay  and 
Calcutta  (14) — English  settlements  iu  North  Ame- 
rica; annexations  of  the  Swedish  and  Dutch  colonies 
(15) — French  colonization  in  Louisiana,  (15) — Sum- 
mary (16). 

i.  Conquests  of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth. — 
We  have  now  come  to  the  time  when  France  takes  the 
same  place  among  the  nations  of  Europe  which  had 
for  a  while  been  held  by  Spain,  and  becomes  in  the 
like  sort  the  object  of  fear  to  most  other  nations.  We 
have  seen  that  the  power  of  France  was  confirmed,  as 
against  the  Empire,  by  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  in 
1648,  and,  as  against  Spain,  by  the  Peace'  of  the 
Pyrenees  in  1659.  Thus  the  House  of  Bouibon  had 


xiv.]  LEWIS  THE  FOURTEENTH.  zSj 

humbled  both  branches'  'of  the  House  of  Austria.  The 
reigning  King  was  now  Lewis  the  Fourteenth,  who 
came  to  the  crown  as  a  child  in  1643,  and  reigned 
seventy-two  years,  till  1715.  The  earlier  part  of  his 
reign  was  a  time  of  great  confusion  and  rebellion,  but 
from  the  time  of  his  taking  the  government  on  him.- 
self,  on  the  death  of  Cardinal  Mazarin  in  1661,  till 
the  end  of  his  long  reign,  no  King  of  any  country  ever 
kept  things  more  wholly  in  his  own  hands.  He  was 
served  by  very  able  ministers  and  generals,  but  his 
own  will  gave  the  law  to  France,  and  thereby  to  a 
great  part  of  Europe.  His  common  saying  was,  "  I 
am  the  State  ;"  and  he  made  himself  so  ;  for,  besides 
greatly  advancing  the  power  of  France  in  Europe,  he 
greatly  advanced  the  royal  authority  in  France.  The 
States-General  were  never  summoned  ;  he  humbled  the 
Parliament  of  Paris,  the  chief  court  of  law,  which  had 
hitherto  put  some  check  on  the  King's  will ;  in  short, 
he  made  France  still  more  thoroughly  an  absolute 
monarchy  than  it  was  before.  He  married  Maria 
Theresa,  an  Infanta  or  Princess  of  Spain,  and  at  the 
marriage  all  rights  to  any  part  of  the  Spanish  domin- 
ions which  might  thus  pass  to  himself  or  his  children 
were  solemnly  given  up.  Notwithstanding  this,  when 
Philip  the  Fourth  of  Spain  died  in  1665,  Lewis  gave 
out  that  by  an  old  law  of  the  Netherlands  certain  pans 
of  those  provinces  ought  to  pass  to  his  Queen  rather 
than  to  the  next  King,  Charles  the  Second.  This 
frightened  the  United  Provinces,  who  feared  that  the 
claim  would  extend  to  them.  Presently,  in  1667,  he 
invaded  the  Netherlands,  and  in  the  next  year,  he,  for 
the  first  time,  conquered  the  County  of  Burgundy,  now 
called  Franche  Comte,  which  still  belonged  to  Spain, 
and  the  Imperial  city  of  Besan^on,  which  had  now  be« 
come  a  part  of  the  County.  These  last  conquests  he 
gave  up  the  same  year  ty  a  treaty  at  Aachen,  but  he 
kept  his  conquests  in  the  Netherlands.  Next  in 
1672,  he  attacked  the  United  Provinces,  and  both 


^84  THE  GREATNESS  OF  FRANCE.  [CHAR 

Knglancl  and  several  German  princes  were,  to  theii 
great  shame,  on  his  side.  But  after  a  while  the  English 
Parliament  compelled  the  King,  Charles  the  Second, 
to  make  peace.  The  war  now  became  general ;  the 
Emperor  Leopold  and  King  Charles  of  Spain  made  a 
league  with  the  United  Provinces,  so  strangely  had 
things  turned  about  since  they  first  threw  off  the 
Spanish  yoke.  The  Empire,  as  a  body,  was  neutral, 
but  some  of  the  German  princes,  among  them  the 
Great  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  Frederick  William, 
joined  the  league  against  France ;  so  did  Denmark, 
while  Sweden  took  the  French  side,  so  that  there  was 
a  kind  of  separate  war  going  on  in  the  North.  It  was 
in  this  war  that  William  Prince  of  Orange,  the  de- 
scendant of  William  the  Silent,  and  who  was  afterwards 
King  of  England,  first  made  himself  famous.  At  last 
peace  was  made  at  Nimwegen  in  1678  and  1679,  by 
which  France  kept  most  of  her  new  conquests  in  the 
Spanish  Netherlands,  with  the  County  of  Burgundy 
and  the  city  of  Besanc_on,  and  some  Imperial  towns 
in  Elsass  which  had  not  been  given  up  by  the  Peace 
of  Westphalia.  In  all  this  war  Lewis  had  been  spread 
ing  his  influence  far  and  wide,  and  making  alliances 
everywhere.  Just  as  other  Kings  of  France  had  done, 
though  he  was  a  cruel  persecutor  of  tne  Protestants  in 
France,  he  helped  the  Hungarian  Protestants  against 
their  King  the  Emperor,  and  even  allied  himself  with 
the  Turks,  as  Francis  the  First  had  done. 

2.  Lewis  the  Fourteenth  and  "William  of 
Orange. — Lewis  was  now  at  the  height  of  his  power, 
and  his  flatterers  called  him  Lewis  the  Great.  But, 
even  after  these  great  successes,  he  never  could  keep 
quiet ;  he  went  on  annexing  small  places  in  Elsass, 
and  at  last,  in  1681,  he  seized  on  the  free  Imperial 
city  of  Strassbur%  in  time  of  peace.  Then  he  began 
to  meddle  in  Italy,  and,  among  other  things,  he  picked 
a  quarrel  with  the  commonwealth  of  Gtnca,  bom- 
barded the  city,  and  made  the  Doge  come  and  ask 


EUROPE 

under 
LEWIS  THE  FOURTEENTH 


)  from  Greenwich        30 


Fisk  4  Bee,  X.  Y. 


xiv.]      WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH  SUCCESSION.       285 

humbly  for  peace.  Other  smaller  wars  with  Spain 
followed,  and  in  1688  Lewis  seized  Avignan,  which 
belonged  to  the  Pope,  and  directly  afterwards  he  began 
a  new  war,  because  he  could  not  get  a  candidate  of 
his  own  chosen  to  the  Archbishopnck  of  Koln.  But 
by  this  time  one  very  important  change  had  taken 
place.  James  the  Second  of  England,  who,  like  his 
brother  Charles,  had  been  in  the  pay  of  Lewis,  had 
been  driven  out,  and  his  nephew  and  son-in-law 
William  Prince  of  Orange,  the  Stadholder  of  Holland, 
had  been  chosen  King  of  England  in  his  stead. 
England  was  now  therefore  against  France,  and  King 
William  was  the  very  soul  of  the  general  league 
called  the  Grand  Alliance,  which  was  now  made  to 
keep  Lewis  from  bringing  all  Europe  under  his 
yoke.  But  William  found  it  hard  to  manage  many 
of  his  allies,  for  both  Spain  and  the  German  princes 
were  often  anxious  to  throw  Uie  burthen  of  the  war 
on  England  and  the  United  Provinces,  and  towards 
the  end  of  the  war  Lewis  contrived  to  detach  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  from  the  Alliance.  This  war  went 
on  almost  everywhere  at  once.  The  thing  by  which 
it  is  best  remembered  is  the  cruel  ravaging  of  the 
dominions  of  the  Elector  Palatine  by  Lewis's  orders 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Many  battles  were  fought 
and  towns  taken  on  both  sides,  especially  in  the 
Netherlands ;  and  at  last  peace  was  made  at  Ryswick, 
by  which  most  of  the  conquests  on  both  sides  were 
restored.  France  especially  gave  up  the  places  which 
had  been  seized  in  Germany,  except  the  great  city  of 
Strassburg,  which  she  was  allowed  to  keep. 

3.  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession. — 
Another  war  began  in  1700,  on  the  death  of  Charles 
the  Second  of  Spain.  This  is  called  the  War  of  tht. 
Spanish  Succession.  As  Charles  had  no  children, 
there  was  much  doubt  who  should  succeed  to  his 
dominions,  and  several  treaties  had  been  made  be- 
tween England  and  the  United  Provinces,  France,  and 


286  THE  GREATNESS  OF  FRANCE.         [CH\P 

the  Empire,  to  hinder  the  "whole  of  the  Spanish 
dominions  from  being  any  longer  united.  By  the  last 
treaty  they  were  to  be  divided  among  the  several 
claimants,  and  the  Crown  of  Spain  itself  was  to  pass 
to  the  Archduke  Charles  of  Austria,  the  son  of  the 
Emperor  Leopold.  But  when  King  Charles  of  Spain 
died,  it  was  found  that  he  had  left  the  whole  of  his 
dominions  to  Philip  of  Anjou,  the  grandson  of  the 
King  of  France.  Philip  the  fifth  therefore  succeeded 
to  the  Crown  of  Spain.  But  war  broke  out  in  1701  ; 
the  Emperor,  England,  the  United  Provinces,  Bran- 
denburg or  Prussia  (whichever  we  a*e  now  to  call  it), 
and  afterwards  Savoy,  all  took  part  in  it.  This  was 
the  war  in  which  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  carried  on 
his  great  campaigns  in  the  Netherlands,  and  in  which 
England  got  possession  of  Gibraltar.  The  war  went 
on  in  all  parts  with  various  success  till  1713  and 
1714,  when  it  was  ended  by  the  Treaties  of  Utrecht 
and  Rastadt.  By  these  treaties  the  great  Spanish 
monarchy  was  divided,  in  a  way  of  which  we  shall  say 
more  when  we  come  to  the  several  countries  which 
were  concerned  in  the  division.  But  Philip  kept 
Spain  and  the  Indies,  that  is,  the  distant  possessions 
of  Spain  in  America  and  elsewhere,  so  that  Lewis 
succeeded  so  far  that  he  had  established  his.  grandson 
on  the  throne  of  Spain,  But  in  this  last  war  he  had 
made  no  such  conquests  for  his  own  kingdom  as  he 
had  made  in  his  earlier  wars.  And  these  constant 
wars,  and  his  despotic  government  at  home,  had 
greatly  weakened  and  impoverished  his  kingdom.  It 
was  weakened  above  all  by  Lewis's  persecutions  of  the 
Protestants.  In  1685  he  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
which  had  been  granted  in  their  favour  by  Henry  the 
Fourth.  A  most  cruel  persecution  followed,  chiefly  in 
the  South,  where  the  Protestants  were  most  numerous. 
This  was  a  great  blow  for  France,  as  crowds  of  skilful 
and  industrious  men  left  the  country,  and  carried  their 
(kill  to  England  and  elsewhere.  But,  as  far  as  merf 


xi  v.I  ENGLAND.  287 

military  glory  went,  there  had  as  yet  been  no  time 
when  France  had  had  so  large  a  share  of  it  as  during 
the  reign  of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth. 

4.  England. — It  marks  the  great  position  which 
France  held  during  this  time,  that,  in  telling  the 
history  of  France,  we  have  to  tell  so  large  a  part 
of  the  history  of  all  Western  Europe.  But  this 
was  a  most  important  time,  both  in  England  and 
in  other  countries.  From  the  execution  of  Charles 
the  First  in  1649  to  the  Restoration  of  his  son 
Charles  the  Second  in  1660,  England  was  a  common- 
wealth. During  the  first  years  after  the  King's  death, 
the  Long  Parliament,  which  had  overthrown  him,  kept 
the  government  in  its  own  hands.  But  in  1653  the 
great  general  of  the  Parliament,  Oliver  Cromwell,  took 
on  himself  the  chief  power  by  the  title  of  Lord  Pro- 
tector, for,  like  Caesar  at  Rome,  he  did  not  dare  to  call 
himself  King.  He  kept  his  power  till  his  death  in 
1658,  and  then  came  a  time  of  confusion  till  the 
Restoration  of  Charles  the  Second.  Under  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Parliament  and  of  the  Protector,  England 
rose  again  to  the  place,  or  more  than  the  place,  in 
Europe  which  she  had  held  under  Elizabeth,  and 
which  she  had  lost  under  the  first  two  Stuart  Kings. 
Scotland,  where  Charles  the  Second  had  been  acknow- 
ledged King  after  his  father's  death,  was  now  united 
with  England.  Ireland  was  conquered  as  it  had  never 
been  conquered  before.  A  war  was  waged  with  the 
United  Provinces,  in  which  the  great  admirals  of  the 
two  commonwealths,  Blake  on  the  English  side,  and 
De  Ruyter  and  Van  Tromp  on  the  Dutch,  won  vic- 
tories over  each  other.  The  Island  of  Jamaica  in  the 
West  Indies  was  won  from  Spain ;  the  Protector  inter- 
fered to  protect  the  Protestants  in  Savoy,  who  were 
persecuted  by  their  Duke,  and  he  made  favourable 
treaties  with  most  of  the  powers  of  Europe.  All  this 
was  changed  after  Charles  the  Second  came  to  the 
Crown ;  for  he  had  no  care  for  the  honour  of  th« 


/SS  THE  GREATNESS   OF  FRANCE.        [CHAP. 

nation,  and  he  actually  was  in  the  pay  of  Lewis  ol 
France.  The  secret  object  of  their  schemes  was  to  set 
up  absolute  power  and  the  Roman  Catholic  religion 
in  England.  Charles  first  made  men  angry  in  1663  by 
selling  Dunkirk  to  the  French  King.  Then  followed 
a.  war  with  the  United  Provinces  from  1664  to  1667, 
just  at  the  time  when  the  Plague  of  London  happened 
in  1665,  and  the  Great  Fire  in  1666.  In  this  war  the 
Dutch  fleet  sailed  up  the  Thames,  a  thing  which  no 
enemy's  fleet  had  done  since  the  old  times  of  the 
Danes.  In  this  war  Lewis  professed  to  be  on  the  side 
of  the  Dutch,  but  intrigues  were  going  on  between  him 
and  Charles.  Though  in  1668  a  Triple  Alliance  was 
concluded  between  England,  Sweden,  and  the  United 
Provinces,  to  check  the  advance  of  France  ;  yet,  when 
Lewis  invaded  Holland  in  1672,  Charles  joined  him, 
and  another  naval  war  between  England  and  the  United 
Provinces  followed.  Peace  however  was  made  the 
next  year,  and  after  a  while  Mary,  the  niece  of 
Charles  and  daughter  of  James  Duke  of  York,  was 
married  to  her  cousin  William,  Prince  of  Orange.  In 
1685  James  came  to  the  throne.  He  had  openly 
become  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  his  illegal  doings  in 
favour  of  those  of  his  own  religion  at  last  obliged  him 
to  leave  the  country,  and  William  and  Mary  were 
chosen  King  and  Queen. 

5.  Great  Britain. — The  effects  of  the  Revolution 
which  placed  William  and  Mary  on  the  throne  were 
different  in  the  three  kingdoms  of  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland.  In  England  the  old  laws  and  liberties 
were  restored  after  a  time  of  misgovernment.  In 
Scotland,  which,  at  the  restoration  of  Charles  the 
Second,  had  again  become  a  separate  kingdom,  the 
Stuart  Kings  had  tried  in  vain  to  force  the  rites  and 
government  of  the  English  Church  on  a  people  who 
preferred  a  system  departing  further  from  that  of  Rome. 
William  and  Mary  were  therefore  gladly  chosen 
in  Scotland,  and  tffe  Presbyterian  Church  was  finally 


xiv.]  ENGLAND.  189 

established.  But  in  Ireland,  where  the  mass  of  the 
people  were  Roman  Catholics,  the  cause  of  James  was, 
maintained  for  a  while.  But  in  the  end  Ireland  was 
more  thoroughly  conquered  than  ever,  and  the  native 
Roman  Catholic  inhabitants  were  ground  down  for 
a  long  while  under  the  dominion  of  the  Protestant 
English.  Thus  the  Scots  gained  their  freedom  and  the 
e-stablishment  of  their  own  religion  by  the  same  revo- 
lution which  enslaved  Ireland.  In  1707,  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Anne,  who  succeeded  William,  England  and 
Scotland  were  joined  together  into  one  kingdom,  with 
one  Parliament,  called  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain, 
while  Ireland  remained  a  separate  and  dependent 
kingdom.  Meanwhile,  after  the  election  of  William 
and  Mary,  now  that  the  same  man  was  King  of 
England  and  Stadholder  of  Holland,  England  took  a 
leading  part,  as  we  have  already  said,  in  the  last  two 
wars  against  Lewis.  By  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  Eng- 
land, or  we  should  now  rather  say  Great  Britain, 
gained  the  fortress  of  Gibraltar,  which  we  have  kept 
ever  since,  and  the  island  of  Minorca.  This  was  the 
English  share  in  the  partition  of  the  Spanish  monarchy, 
and  it  was  our  first  possession  in  the  Mediterranean. 
Tangier  had  been  an  English  possession  during  the 
reign  of  Charles  the  Second,  but  Tangier  lies  outside 
the  Strait.  In  all  these  ways  England  became  more 
mixed  up  with  continental  affairs  than  she  had  been 
before,  and  this  was  still  more  the  case  when,  just  be- 
fore the  death  of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth,  the  Crown  of 
Great  Britain  passed  to  a  foreign  prince  who  was 
actually  a  reigning  sovereign,  which  William  was  not, 
except  in  his  little  principality  of  Orange.  This  was 
George  Elector  of  Hanover,  a  descendant  of  James  the 
First  in  the  female  line,  who,  as  neither  William  nor 
Anne  left  any  children,  was  chosen  by  Parliament  to 
gucceed,  as  being  the  next  Protestant  heir.  Thus 
England  had  again,  after  so  many  years,  a  King  who 
could  not  speak  English. 


ago  THE  GREATNESS  OF  FRANCE.         [CHAP. 

6.  Germany  and  Hungary.  —  We  have  seen 
how  utterly  the  power  of  the  Emperors  came  to  an 
end  bjr  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  ;  and  the  next  Em- 
peror, Leopold,  who  succeeded  Ferdinand  the  Third  in 
1658  and  reigned  till  1705,  was  not  a  man  likely  to  set 
it  up  again.  The  German  princes  now  did  much  as 
they  pleased,  and  many  of  them  did  not  scruple  to 
become  the  allies  of  Lewis.  In  fact,  in  a  great  part  of 
Germany  the  King  of  France  was  much  more  £ruly  the 
head  than  the  Emperor.  The  most  famous  German, 
prince  of  this  time  was  the  Great  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg, Frederick  William,  who  has  been  already  spoken 
of  as  taking  a  part  in  the  war  against  Lewis.  It 
was  under  him  that  the  House  of  Hohenzolleru 
began  to  rise  to  greatness.  He  inherited  and  gained 
several  fresh  territories  in  Germany,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  he  made  his  Duchy  of  Prussia  independent  of 
Poland.  His  son  Frederick,  the  first  King  of  Prussia 
took  part  against  France  in  the  War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession  ;  he  also  inherited  a  possession  at  a  great 
distance,  namely  the  Principality  of  Neufchatel  in  the 
old  Kingdom  of  Burgundy.  This  small  state  was  in 
close  alliance  with  the  Canton  of  Bern,  and  it  has 
since  become  a  part  of  Switzerland.  The  next  King, 
Frederick  William  the  First,  who  succeeded  in  1713, 
received  some  further  additions  to  his  territories  in 
western  Germany  by  the  Peace  of  Utrecht.  Thus 
Prussia,  as  it  must  now  be  called  rather  than  Branden- 
burg, was  advancing  step  by  step  to  the  position  of  a 
great  power  in  Europe.  The  Emperor  Leopold  mean- 
while, besides  the  wars  with  France,  had  much  to  do 
in  his  kingdom  cf  Hungary,  both  with  the  wars  against 
the  Turks  and  with  the  revolts  of  the  Hungarians  them- 
selves, who  were  stirred  up  by  his  cruel  persecutions 
of  the  Protestants.  The  Protestants  did  not  scruple 
to  join  with  the  Turks,  and  we  can  hardly  wonder  at 
them  ;  for  the  Christian  subjects  of  a  Mahometan 
power,  though  they  are  dealt  with  as  an  inferior 


xiv.J  THE  SPANISH  PENINSULA.  29* 

people,  are  not  denied  the  free  exercise  of  their  re- 
ligron.  In  1683  the  Turks  besieged  Vienna,  which  was 
delivered  by  John  Sobieski,  King  of  Poland,  and  Charles 
Duke  of  Lorraine.  After  this  the  war  went  on,  and  the 
Turks  were  gradually  driven  out  of  the  part  of  Hungary 
•which  they  held,  and  peace  was  made  at  Carlowitz  in 
1699.  In  the  midst  of  all  this  the  crown  of  Hungary, 
which,  though  it  had  been  so  long  in  the  Austrian 
family,  was  still  by  law  elective,  was  made  hereditary  in 
1687.  Leopold  then  gave  up  the  kingdom  to  his  son 
fase-ph,  who  in  1690  was  chosen  King  of  the  Romans, 
and  succeeded  his  father  as  Emperor  in  1705.  He 
took  a  leading  part  in  all  the  affairs  of  Europe  during 
his  time.  The  war  with  France  went  on,  and  so  did  the 
civil  wars  in  Hungary,  till  1711,  after  which  we  hear 
of  no  more  revolts  for  a  long  while.  In  that  year 
Joseph  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Charles  the  Sixth. 
He  it  was  whom  the  Allies  had  wished  to  make  King 
of  Spain,  and  now  the  fear  of  uniting  Spain  with  the 
dominions  of  the  House  of  Austria  helped  to  incline 
the  Allies  to  peace.  By  the  terms  of  peace  the  House 
of  Austria  got,  as  its  share  of  Spanish  dominions,  ah 
that  remained  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  the  King- 
doms of  Naples  and  Sardinia,  and  the  Duchy  of  Milan, 
except  some  parts  which  were  given  to  the  Duke  oi 
Savoy.  In  1715  another  war  began  with  the  Turks, 
which  was  ended  in  1718  by  the  Peace  of  Passarcwilz, 
by  which  more  territory  was  won,  including  Belgrade 
the  capital  of  Servia.  Thus  the  House  of  Austria, 
whose  archdukes  were  so  regularly  chosen  emperors, 
gained  a  great  increase  of  territory  during  this  period, 
but  it  all  went  to  the  advantage  of  the  House  of 
Austria,  not  at  all  to  the  advantage  of  what  was  still 
called  the  Roman  Empire. 

7.  The  Spanish  Peninsula. — The  history  of 
Spain  during  this  time  has  pretty  well  been  told 
already.  The  power  which  had  been  so  great 


292  THE  GREA  TXESS  OF  FRANCE.        [CHAP. 

under  Charles  the  Fifth  and  Philip  the  Second  had 
now  sunk  to  nothing,  and  Spain  was  disputed  about 
by  other  powers  without  their  asking  the  consent  of 
its  own  people.  But  of  the  competitors  for  the 
Spanish  Crown  the  Spaniards  certainly  preferred  the 
French  candidate  to  the  Austrian,  except  in  Cata- 
lonia, where  the  people  took  the  other  side.  They 
had  been  deceived  by  the  French  in  earlier  wars. 
Portugal  during  this  time  has  hardly  any  general  his- 
tory. At  first  it  took  the  side  of  the  French,  and 
afterwards  that  of  the  allies.  And  we  must  not  forget 
that,  besides  the  loss  of  its  possessions  in  different 
parts  of  Europe,  Spain  itself  suffered  dismemberment. 
For,  as  we  have  seen,  England  got,  not  only  the 
island  of  Minorca,  but  also  the  fortress  of  Gibraltar 
on  the  mainland  of  Spain  itself. 

8.  Advance  of  Savoy. — Italy  also  has  very  little 
history  during  these  times.  From  this  time  onwards 
we  shall  find  both  Italy  and  the  Netherlands  used  as  a 
kind  of  battle-field  for  the  wars  of  other  nations.  We 
have  seen  how,  by  the  Treaty  of  UtrecJit,  several  parts 
of  Italy  were  again  made  to  change  masters,  and  how, 
for  the  first  time  since  Charles  the  Fifth,  the  Emperor, 
though  we  can  no  longer  say  the  Empire,  again  became 
an  important  powe-r  in  Italy.  But  there  are  two  in- 
dependent states  in  Italy  of  whose  history  some  ac- 
count must  be  given.  The  House  of  Savoy  was  steadily 
making  its  way.  From  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  had  sought  to  add 
to  their  dominions  the  possessions  of  the  common- 
wealth of  Genoa,  and  also  whatever  they  might  be  able 
to  win  in  Lombardy,  which  was  then  divided  between 
the  commonwealth  of  Venice  and  the  Kings  of  Spain 
as  Dukes  of  Milan.  Genoa  they  were  not  to  win  ibi 
a  long  time ;  but,,  by  taking  a  part  dexterously,  and 
not  very  scrupulously,  in  every  war,  they  always  con- 
trived to  gain  scmething  by  each  treaty  of  peace. 
Thus  Duke  Victor  Amadcus  the  Second  took  a  part  is 


xiv.j  WARS  OF  VENICE.  293 

both  the  wars  of  the  Allies  against  France.  He  gained 
in  some  campaigns  and  lost  in  others  ;  he  changed  side! 
more  than  once  ;  but  he  gained  an  increase  of  territory 
both  by  the  Peace  of  Ryswick  and  by  the  Peace  of 
Utrecht  His  gains  by  this  last  peace  were  very  great ; 
he  gained  a  part  of  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  and,  more 
than  this,  he  became  a  King.  The  Dukes  of  Savoy  had 
for  a  long  time  claimed  to  be  Kings  of  Cyprus  ana 
Jerusalem,  but  these  were  mere  nominal  kingdoms. 
But  now  Victor  Amadeus  became  really  King  of  the 
Island  of  Sicily,  while  the  kingdom  on  the  mainland 
went  to  the  Emperor.  The  Two  Sicilies  were  thus 
again  divided,  as  they  had  been  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries.  The  Dukes  of  Savoy  in  all  this 
show  a  marked  contrast  to  the  other  princes  of  Italy, 
and  the  corruption  which  had  spread  itself  over  most 
parts  of  Italy  under  the  Spanish  domination  had  hardly 
touched  their  dominions.  They  were  thus  able  to  do 
great  things  ;  and,  though  their  policy  as  yet  was  purely 
selfish,  they  were  really  laying  the  foundation  of  the 
power  which  in  our  own  time  has  grown  into  the  re- 
stored Kingdom  of  Italy. 

9.  Wars  of  Venice. — The  other  Italian  state  of 
which  some  account  must  be  given  during  this  time 
was  the  commonwealth  of  Venice,  which  was  still 
nobly  playing  its  part  as  the  champion  of  Christendom 
against  the  Turks.  Cyprus  had  been  lost,  but  the 
Venetians  still  kept  Crete.  But  in  1645  the  Turks 
attacked  the  island,  and  a  war  in  its  defence  went  on 
for  twenty- four  years.  This  war,  as  the  greater  part  oi 
it  was  taken  up  by  the  siege  of  the  town  of  Candia, 
was  commonly  called  the  War  of  Candia.  The  Vene- 
tians were  helped,  just  as  in  the  old  times  of  the 
Crusades,  by  volunteers  and  others  from  various  parts 
of  Europe,  from  France,  Spain,  England,  and  Savoy ; 
but  at  last,  in  1669,  Candia  could  no  longer  hold  out, 
and  the  whole  island  passed  to  the  Turks.  In  1684 
the  Venetians  joined  the  Emperor  Leopold  and  the 


294  THE  GREATNESS  OF  FRANCE.         [CHAP. 

Poles  in  their  war  with  the  Turks,  and  presently  Fran- 
tesco  Morosini,  who  had  commanded  at  Camlia,  con- 
quered the  whole  of  Peloponnesos,  and  was  afterwards 
tlected  Doge.  It  was  in  this  war  that  the  Parthendn, 
the  great  temple  at  Athens,  which  had  become  a  church 
under  the  Eastern  Emperors  and  a  powder-magazine 
under  the  Turks,  was  finally  broken  down  when  Moro- 
eini  was  besieging  Athens.  Peloponnesos  was  con- 
firmed to  Venice  in  the  Peace  of  Carlowitz  in  1699, 
but  it  was  won  back  by  the  Turks  in  1715,  as  well  as 
all  that  Venice  still  kept  in  the  East,  except  the  Ionian 
Islands  and  one  or  two  points  on  the  west  coast  of 
Epeiros.  In  1716  the  Turks  in  vain  tried  to  take  Corfu, 
but  in  1718  the  Emperor  Charles  forsook  Venice  just 
when  there  was  a  chance  of  winning  back  Peloponnesos. 
With  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz  in  that  year  the  history 
of  the  wars  of  Venice  in  the  East,  which  had  gone  on 
ever  since  the  taking  of  Constantinople  in  1204,  came 
to  an  end. 

10.  The  United  Provinces.  —  During  all  this 
time  the  Seven  United  Provinces,  as  what  we  have 
already  said  will  show,  held  a  much  higher  position  in 
Europe  and  the  world  in  general  than  could  have  been 
looked  for  from  the  extent  of  their  territories.  And 
they  did  this  notwithstanding  an  aw 'sward  constitution 
in  which  each  of  the  states  of  which  the  Confedera- 
tion was  made  up  kept  nearly  all  the  rights  of  sove- 
reignty. In  Holland,  which  was  the  leading  province 
of  the  seven,  there  was  a  chief  magistrate  called  a 
Stadholder,  who  often  held  the  same  office  in  other 
provinces  also.  This  office  had  passed  on  for  some 
generations,  almost  as  if  it  had  been  hereditary,  in  the 
family  of  the  Princes  of  Orange.  But,  when  William 
the  Second — as  it  is  most  convenient  to  call  him, 
though  he  was  really  the  Ninth  in  his  own  principality 
of  Orange — died  in  1650,  his  son  William  tfie  Third 
was  not  yet  born,  and  the  office  of  Stadhold&r  was 
formally  abolished  in  1667.  At  this  time  the  State* 


xiv.]  THE  NORTHERN  KINGDOMS.  295 

were  chiefly  led  by  a  famous  statesman  of  Holland 
fohn  de  Witt,  but  in  1672  there  was  a  revolution  ;  De 
Witt  and  his  brother  were  murdered,,  and  the  Prince 
was  appointed  Stadholder.  It  was  he  who  carried  on 
the  great  defence  of  the  Provinces  against  France,  but 
after  his  death  the  office  of  Stadholder  was  again 
abolished  for  a  long  while. 

ii.  The  Northern  Kingdoms. — Sweden,  like 
the  United  Provinces,  held  during  all  this  time  a 
greater  position  in  Europe  than  it  was  really  able  to 
keep.  Queen  Christina  abdicated  in  1654;  the  wars 
went  on  during  the  time  of  the  next  King,  Charles  the 
Tenth,  and  in  1660  Charles  the  Eleventh  concluded  the 
Treaties  of  Oliva  and  Copenhagen,  by  which  Sweden 
gained  almost  all  Livonia  from  Poland,  and  obtained 
from  Denmark  all  that  part  of  Denmark  which  lay 
within  the  northern  peninsula,  so  that  Denmark  now 
kept  only  Jutland  and  the  islands.  Sweden  now  had 
greater  territories  than  it  had  at  any  time  before  or 
since,  and  in  this  King's  reign,  in  1682,  the  royal 
power  was  made  absolute  by  law.  The  same  had  been 
done  in  Denmark  in  1660,  in  the  reign  of  Frederick 
the  Third.  Then,  in  1697,  came  the  famous  Charle; 
the  Twelfth.  He  was  presently  attacked  by  Denmark, 
Poland,  and  Russia  all  at  once.  He  first  beat  the 
Danes,  and  then  the  Russians  in  the  famous  battle  of 
Narva;  then  he  passed  on  into  Poland,  where  he 
deposed  one  King  and  set  up  another  ;  then  he  passed 
on  into  Russia,  where  at  last  he  was  defeated  at 
fultowa,  and  had  to  take  shelter  in  the  Turkish 
dominions  at  Hender.  There  he  stayed  in  a  kind  of 
captivity  for  a  while,  but  in  1714  he  made  his  way 
almost  alone  to  Siralsund  in  his  Pomeranian  domin- 
ions, where  he  was  besieged  by  the  forces  of  Denmark, 
Prussia,  and  Saxony.  In  1718  he  was  killed  in  attack-- 
ing Fredericks  hall  in  Norway.  His  sister  Ulrica  suc- 
ceeded him.  Absolute  monarchy  was  now  again 
abolished,  and  the  royal  powers  were  made  very  small 


296  THE  GREATNESS  OF  FRANCE.         [CHAJ 

In  1720  and  1721  peace  was  made  by  Sweden  with 
her  various  enemies,  and  the  Swedish  dominions  were 
cut  short  in  all  parts.  Livonia  and  the  neighbouring 
land  were  given  up  to  Russia,  whose  territories 
now  reached  to  the  Baltic.  Bremen  and  Verden  were 
given  up  to  Hanover,  and  part  of  Swedish  Pomerania 
to  Prussia.  So  of  the  fruits  of  the  German  victories  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  nothing  was  left  except  part  of 
Pomerania  and  the  town  of  IVismar;  but  the  Scandi- 
navian territories  which  had  been  won  from  Denmark 
in  the  last  century  were  still  kept.  Charles  the  Twelfth 
had  won  victories  which  astonished  the  whole 
world,  but  he  taxed  the  resources  of  his  kingdom  be 
yond  its  strength,  and  since  his  time  Sweden  has  never 
been  what  it  was  during  the  whole  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  Sweden  now  reached 
to  the  extreme  south  of  her  own  peninsula,  and  was 
no  longer  cut  off  by  Denmark  from  the  western  seas. 
In  fact  Sweden  has  to  some  extent,  like  Savoy, 
gained  territory  at  one  end  and  lost  it  at  the  other, 
though  the  gains  have  been  greater  in  the  case  of 
Savoy  and  the  losses  in  the  case  of  Sweden. 

12.  Russia  and  Poland. — We  need  say  but 
little  about  the  history  of  Russia  in  this  chapter, 
because  its  wonderful  advances  towards  the  end  of 
this  time  will  come  better  as  a  connected  story  in  the 
next  chapter.  Poland  meanwhile  had,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  give  up  her  new  territory  of  Livonia  to 
Sweden,  and  presently,  in  1672,  she  had  to  give  up 
the  border  province  of  Podolia  to  the  Turks,  and  t.o 
submit  to  pay  a  tribute.  But  in  1674  the  Poles  chose 
as  their  King  their  own  famous  general,  John  Sobieski, 
the  same  who  delivered  Vienna  in  1683.  Both  before 
and  after  he  became  King,  he  won  several  victories  over 
the  Turks.  He  got  back  part  of  the  lost  territories,  and 
for  a  time  joined  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  to  Poland  ; 
these  are  the  two  Danubian  principalities  of  which 
there  has  been  much  talk  of  late  years.  These  coo 


xiv.J  THE  TURKS.  295 

quests  were  not  long  kept.  Sobieski  died  in  1696, 
and  the  Poles  did  not  choose  a  new  King  foi  more 
than  a  year.  Then  they  chose  Frederick  Augustus^ 
Elector  of  Saxony,  who  turned  Catholic  to  receive  the 
Crown,  since  which  time  the  Electors  and  Kings  ot 
Saxony  have  been  Catholics,  while  their  people  have 
remained  Protestant  This  King  is  called  Augustus 
the  Strong.  He  won  back  the  strong  town  of  Kami 
niec  from  the  Turks ;  but,  having  joined  the  league 
against  Charles  the  Twelfth  of  Sweden,  he  was  utterly 
overthrown  in  1702.  Charles  called  on  the  Poles  to 
depose  Augustus  and  choose  a  new  King;  so  in  1704 
they  chose  one  of  their  own  nobles,  Stanislaus 
Leszczynski.  But  he  reigned  no  longer  than  Charles 
could  help  him,  and,  after  Charles's  defeat  at  Pultowa 
and  after  a  civil  war  in  Poland,  Augustus  was  brought 
back.  Poland  was  now  falling  very  fast  from  the  high 
place  which  it  had  once  held  in  Europe. 

13.  The  Turks. — The  chief  events  in  the  history 
of  the  Turks  have  already  been  told  when  we  spoke 
of  their  wars  with  Venice  and  in  Hungary.  Though 
they  conquered  Crete  and  recovered  Peloponnesos,  yet 
on  the  whole  the  power  of  the  Ottomans  was  going 
down.  Some  of  the  Sultans,  like  Mahomet  the  Fourth, 
in  whose  time  Vienna  was  besieged,  were  men  of 
sp/.rit,  and  Mahomet  sometimes  commanded  his  own 
armies,  but  some  were  very  weak  men  indeed,  and  none 
were  like  the  great  series  of  Sultans  who  had  founded 
the  Ottoman  dominion.  One  great  reason  for  the 
decline  of  the  Ottoman  power  was  that  the  tribute  oi 
children  was  no  longer  regularly  levied  on  the  sub- 
ject nations.  The  Janissaries  had  become  a  kind  of 
hereditary  caste,  and  their  old  spirit  was  quite  gone. 
In  former  times  all  the  best  servants  of  the  Sultans, 
both  in  war  and  peace,  had  come  from  among  the 
tribute  children.  Now  that  the  tribute  was  no  longer 
levied,  the  Sultans  had  no  longer  the  same  succession 
of  able  and  faithful  servants,  and  the  subject  nations 


298  THE  GREA  TNESS  OF  FRANCE.         [CHAP 

were  no  longer  deprived  of  the  men  who  were  most 
fitted  to  be  their  leaders.  As  long  as  the  tribute  was 
levied,  we  may  say  that  the  subject  nations  could  not 
revolt.  As  it  was,  we  do  not  hear  of  any  revolts  for 
some  time  to  come,  but  the  subject  nations  now  began 
to  gain  strength  and  their  masters  became  weaker. 

14.  European  Settlements  in  India. — The 
English  dominion  in  India  began  during  this  time. 
The  great  sailors  of  Elizabeth's  time  had  made  their 
way  into  the  Indian  seas  as  well  as  into  those  of  the 
West,  and  a  systematic  trade  with  India,  carried  on, 
as  was  usual  in  those  days,  by  a  Company,  began  iv 
the  times  of  James  the  First.  The  English  merchants 
had  at  first  to  withstand  the  opposition  of  the  Dutch 
in  the  islands,  and  of  the  Portuguese  on  the  mainland. 
The  Dutch  had  got  possession  of  the  islands  called 
the  Spice  Islands,  which  form  part  of  the  great  group 
of  islands  which  lie  beyond  the  two  peninsulas  of 
India,  and  in  1623  great  indignation  was  caused  by 
what  was  called  the  Massacre  of  Amboyna,  when 
several  Englishmen  were  put  to  death  by  a  sentence 
of  the  Dutch  Court  in  the  island.  With  India  itself 
the  English  began  to  trade  in  a  regular  manner  about 
1613,  when  they  received  a  charter  from  the  reigning 
Emperor  Jefiangir.  The  great  power  in  India  was 
now  the  Mogul  .Empire,  which  was  ruled  by  Mahometan 
princes,  sprung  from  Baber,  a  descendant  of  Timeur, 
who  established  himself  in  India  in  1526.  His  grand- 
son Akbar,  in  whose  time  the  Mogul  dominion  was 
spread  over  the  greater  part  of  India,  was  the  greatest 
and  best  of  all  Mahometan  rulers.  But  in  truth  he 
gave  up  Mahometanism,  and  set  up  a  new  religion 
of  his  own.  Jehangir  was  his  son.  The  first  settle- 
ments in  India  were  merely  factories  for  trade,  but  in 
those  distant  seas  it  was  needful  for  merchants  to 
fortify  their  factories,  and  to  have  ships  which  could 
withstand  an  enemy.  Commercial  enterprises  thus 
Ijradually  changed  into  political  and  military  enter 


xiv.]    EUROPEAN 'SETTLEMENTS tN  INDIA.        299 

prises,  and  the  Company,  which  was  at  first  merely  a 
company  of  traders,  came  to  have  its  dominions  and 
armies  like  a  sovereign  prince  or  commonwealth,  and 
in  the  end  to  have  rule  over  nearly  all  India.  These 
times  however  are  yet  to  come ;  but  the  story  of  the 
English  power  in  India  is  something  like  the  history  of 
Rome  ;  wherever  the  English  merchants  settled  and 
fortified  their  factories,  their  dominion  really  began. 
Their  first  settlement  was  at  Surai ;  one  which  be- 
came of  more  importance  began  at  Madras  in  1 640 ; 
and  in  1662  the  King  of  England,  as  distinguished 
from  the  English  trading  Company,  first  became  pos- 
sessed of  a  dominion  in  India.  This  was  Bombay, 
which  was  given  to  England  by  Portugal  on  the  mar- 
riage of  Charles  the  Second  to  the  Portuguese  Infanta 
Katharine.  But  this  new  dominion  was  before  long 
granted  by  the  King  to  the  Company.  In  1698 
began  the  English  settlement  at  Calcutta,  and  these 
three,  Madras,  Bombay,  and  Calcutta,  remained  the 
chief  seats  of  the  British  dominion  in  India.  During 
all  this  time  there  were  many  disputes  between  dif- 
ferent sets  of  merchants  about  the  right  of  trading 
with  India,  till  at  last,  in  1708,  the  East  India  Com- 
pany was  put  on  the  footing  which  it  kept  long  after, 
and  under  which  it  gradually  obtained  either  sove- 
reignty or  commanding  influence  in  most  parts  of 
India.  By  this  time  the  Mogul  Empire  was  much 
weaker  than  it  had  been  at  the  time  when  the  English 
first  settled.  Shah  Jehan,  the  son  of  Jehangir,  who 
reigned  from  1627  to  1658,  was  a  great  prince,  but 
under  his  son  Aurungzebe,  who  reigned  from  1658  to 
1707,  being  thus  nearly  contemporary  with  Lewis  the 
Fourteenth,  the  Empire,  though  outwardly  at  its 
highest  pitch  of  splendour,  was  really  falling  to  pieces. 
For  Aurungzebe  was  a  bigoted  Mahometan,  and  his 
intolerance  led  to  a  revolt  of  the  Mahrattas,  a  Hindoo 
people  who  founded  a  great  dominion  in  Central 
India,  And  presently  the  rulers  of  the  different  pro 


300  THE  GREATNESS  OF  FRANCE.         [CHAT. 

vinces  under  the  Mogul  Emperors  began  to  grow  into 
independent  princes,  keeping  up  only  a  nominal  sub- 
mission to  the  Great  Mogul,  as  he  was  called.  This 
is  the  same  thing  as  we  have  seen  so  often  in  other 
parts  of  the  world,  in  the  Caliphate  and  in  the  Empire 
and  in  the  kingdom  of  France.  By  these  means  the 
progress  of  the  English  in  India  was  much  helped. 
But  we  must  remember  that  during  all  this  time  there 
was  no  sign  at  all  that  the  English  were  likely  to  come 
to  be  the  head  power  in  India.  There  were  as  yet  no- 
thing more  than  one  set  of  traders  and  settlers  among 
others,  Portuguese,  Dutch,  French,  and  Danish. 
Some  of  these  settlements  of  other  nations  remain 
still,  though  the  English  have  so  greatly  outstripped 
them.  But  with  the  islands —  except  Ceylon,  which 
lies  close  to  the  peninsula,  as  Sicily  does  to  Italy — the 
English  have  had  but  little  to  do.  They  have  always 
chiefly  belonged  to  the  Dutch  and  Spaniards. 

15.  European  Colonization  in  America.— 
During  all  this  time  colonization  was  going  on  briskly. 
The  two  great  maritime  and  commercial  powers,  Eng- 
land and  the  United  Provinces,  now  took  the  lead  in 
it  It  was  now  that  England  was  rising  to  her  great 
position  by  sea,  and  her  new  power  led  both  to  the 
foundation  of  new  colonies  and  to  the  conquest  of  the 
colonies  of  other  European  nations.  The  Spaniards 
and  Portuguese  kept  their  great  possessions  in  America, 
though  the  Spanish  power  had  utterly  gone  down  in 
the  New  World  as  well  as  in  the  Old.  The  Dutch 
colony  of  New  Netherland  was  flourishing,  though  the 
Dutch  and  English  often  had  quarrels.  In  1638  the 
Swedes  also,  now  that  Sweden  had  become  a  great 
power,  set  up  a  colony  on  Delaware  Bay,  but  in  1655 
this  colony  was  conquered  by  the  Dutch,  and  was 
joined  to  their  own  New  Netherland.  But  New 
Netherland  itself  did  not  last  very  long,  for  it  was 
conquered  during  the  first  war  between  the  Dutch  and 
the  English  in  Charles  the  Second's  time,  and  several 


xiv.]  SUMMARY.  301 

English  colonies  were  made  out  of  parts  of  it  The 
chief  town,  New  Amsterdam,  changed  its  name  to 
New  York,  in  honour  of  the  king's  brother,  James 
Duke  of  York.  Other  colonies  were  planted  during 
Charles  the  Second's  time,  as  Carolina  and  Newjersty\ 
and  especially  Pennsylvania,  which  was  planted  by  the 
famous  Quaker  William  Pmn,  who  made  laws  for  his 
colony,  and  established  greater  toleration  in  religion 
than  was  to  be  found  anywhere  else.  Meanwhile  the 
French  claimed  to  hold  all  the  vast  regions  to  the 
north  and  west  of  the  English  colonies,  and,  whenever 
there  was  war  between  France  and  England  in  Europe, 
there  was  also  war  between  the  French  and  English 
colonies  in  America.  By  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  in 
1713  the  French  colony  of  Acadie  was  given  up  to 
Great  Britain,  and  became  the  colony  of  Nova  Scotia. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  French  were  really  coloniz- 
ing at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  in  their  province 
of  Louisiana,  and  in  1718  they  founded  the  city  of 
Nan  Orleans.  The  last  of  the  English  colonies  in 
these  parts  was  Georgia,  which  was  founded  in  1723. 
This  made  up  the  number  of  the  thirteeen  colonies  in 
North  America,  which  still  remain  as  the  thirteen 
oldest  States  of  the  American  Union. 

1 6.  Summary. — Thus,  during  this  period,  France 
gained  a  great  increase  of  territory,  and  more  than 
once  she  caused  great  alliances  to  be  formed  to  with- 
stand her.  The  great  Spanish  monarchy  was  divided, 
all  its  outlying  possessions  in  Europe  being  separated 
from  Spain.  England  and  Scotland  were  more  firmly 
joined  together,  and  began  to  take  a  leading  part  in 
all  continental  affairs,  and  Great  Britain  for  the  first 
time  won  a  footing  in  the  Mediterranean.  In  Ger- 
many the  Emperors  became  mere  Austrian  princes : 
but,  as  Austrian  princes,  they  gained  a  great  increase 
of  power,  both  in  Italy,  from  which  they  had  so  long 
been  shut  out,  and  in  South-Eastern  Europe  as  Kings 
of  Hungary.  In  Northern  Germany  also  we  see  the 


302  THE  GREATNESS  OF  FRANCE.         ICH\P 

beginning  of  a  great  and  more  strictly  German  powei 
in  the  growth  of  Brandenburg  or  Prussia.  In  Italy, 
Savoy  advanced,  and  Venice  still  maintained  a  gallant, 
though  on  the  whole  a  losing,  hght  against  the  Turks. 
In  Northern  Europe  Sweden  had,  by  the  end  of  the 
period,  quite  lost  the  great  position  which  it  held  at 
the  beginning,  though  it  had  gained  some  territory  at 
the  expense  of  Denmark.  Poland  was  fast  sinking, 
while  the  greatness  of  Russia  was  beginning.  The 
power  of  the  Turks  was  now  much  less  to  be  feared, 
and,  if  they  gained  territory  from  Venice,  they  lost 
their  possessions  in  Hungary  and  the  neighbouring 
lands.  In  India  the  Dutch  drove  the  Portuguese 
from  the  Islands,  and  the  English  settlements  in  India 
itself  began.  Colonization  went  on  steadily  in  North 
America,  and  the  English  colonies  were  decidedly 
getting  the  upper  hand.  In  the  way  of  learning  and 
literature,  the  United  Provinces  still  produced  great 
scholars  and  political  writers  ;  but  for  literature  in 
their  own  tongues  England  and  France  certainly  stood 
at  the  head.  Many  of  the  most  famous  writers  of 
both  those  languages,  and  also  some  of  the  chief 
philosophers,  belong  to  this  time.  Spain  and  Italy 
had  greatly  sunk  ;  and  Germany  had  not  thoroughly 
recovered  from  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  though  it  is  im- 
possible not  to  mention  the  great  scholar  and  philo- 
sopher Leibnitz.  Generally,  French  influence  had 
too  much  power  in  Germany  just  now  for  anything 
very  original  to  be  done. 


xv.]  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE   RISE   OF   RUSSIi. 

Character  of  the  period  (i) — rivalry    of  Austria   and 
Prussia  (2) — revival  of  the  power  of  Spain;  reign  oj 
the  Emperor  Charles  the  Sixth;  exchange  of  the  King- 
doms of  Sardinia  and  Sicily  (2) — War  of  the  Polish 
Election  (2) — the  Pragmatic  Sanction  (2) —  War  of  the 
Austrian  Succession;    Prussian  conquest  of  Silesia; 
election  of  Charles  the  Seventh   (3) — Maria    Theresa; 
her  husband  Francis  elected  Emperor  (3) — Frederick 
the  Great;  tlte  Seven  Years'  War  (3) — reign  of  Joseph 
the  Second  (3) — the  Hanoverian  Kings  in  England ; 
attempt  of  the  Pretender ;  dealings  -with  France,  Spain, 
and  Sweden  (4) —  War  with  Spain  ;  share  of  England 
in    continental   wars ;    administration  of  Pitt  (4) — 
revolt  of  the  American  colonies;  war  with  France  and 
Spain  (4) — independence  of  Ireland  (4) — reign  of  Lewis 
the  Fifteenth;  annexation  of  Corsica  and  Lorraine  (5) 
— improved  state  of  things  in  Spain  ;  the  Family  Com- 
pact;    administration   of  Poirtbal  in  Portugal  (6) — 
changes  in  Italy ;    advance  of  Savoy ;   revolution  in 
Genoa  and  Corsica  (7) — the  Popes  (7) — Reign  of  Peter 
the  Great  in  Russia;  his  conquests  from  Sweden  and 
other  powers  ;  rise  of  Russia  (8) — reigns  of  women  in 
Russia;    Catharine    the  Second;    conquest   of  Critn 
Tartary  (8) — affairs  of  Poland;  the  three  partitions  (8) 
— loss  of  power  and  territory  by  Sweden;    state  oj 
Denmark  and  the  Duchies  (9) — affairs  of  the  Nether- 
lands;  the  Stadholders  in  the  United  Provinces  made 
hereditary;  revolts  in  the  Austrian  Netherlands  (10) 
— success  of  the  Turks  against  Aitstria  (u) — their  wars 
with  Russia;  successive  losses  of  territory ;  dealings 
of  Russia  with  the  Christian  nations  (11) — growth  oj 


304  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP 

the  English  power  in  India  ;  career  of  Cliw  ;  relation 
of  England  to  the  native  states ;  trial  of  Warren 
Hastings  (12) — the  English  Colonies  in  America; 
conquest  of  Canada  (12) — re-volt  of  the  colonies;  foun- 
dation of  the  United  States  (13) — cession  of  Florida 
(13) — Summary  (14). 

i.  Character  of  the  Period. — The  greatest 
change  which  took  place  in  Europe  during  the  time  to 
which  we  have  now  come  was  undoubtedly  the  growth 
of  the  great  power  of  Russia.  No  other  state  in 
Europe  changed  in  anything  like  the  same  degree  till 
quite  the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Still 
Russia  did  not  come  to  at  all  the  same  kind  of  rank 
which  had  been  held  by  France,  and,  before  that,  by 
Spain.  Nor  did  Russia  rise  to  its  greatness  by  dis- 
placing France  in  the  way  in  which  France  rose  by 
displacing  Spain.  Therefore,  though  this  chapter  is 
called  after  the  greatest  event  of  the  period,  still 
Russia  will  not  be  the  centre  of  our  story  in  the  same 
way  that  the  Empire  was  for  so  long,  and  afterwards 
Spain  and  France.  In  fact  there  is  not  during  this 
time  any  one  power  in  Europe  which  stands  out  in  any 
marked  way  above  all  others.  There  are  several  great 
powers  which  are  much  more  nearly  on  a  level  than 
before,  and  among  them  one  very  important  one  is 
growing  up  in  the  form  of  Prussia.  Indeed  a  great 
part  of  this  period  is  taken  up  with  rivalries  between 
France  and  England,  and  between  Prussia  and  Austria. 
And  it  is  specially  characteristic  of  this  time  that 
France  and  Spain,  the  two  great  Bourbon  powers  are 
commonly  allied  against  England.  In  short,  no  power 
in  Europe  held  a  higher  place  at  this  time  than 
Great  Britain.  Without  exercising  any  general  do- 
minion or  making  any  general  conquests,  England 
had  a  hand  in  nearly  everything  that  went  on.  But 
we  must,  in  this  chapter,  make  the  Imperial  House 
of  Austria  the  centre  of  our  story,  as  hardly  anything 


xv.]  CHARLES  THE  SIXTH.  305 

happened  during  this  whole  time  in  which  that  House 
had  not  a  direct  share. 

2.  The  Reign  of  Charles  the  Sixth.— The 
greater  part  of  the  German  history  of  this  period  is 
taken  up  with  the  rivalry  between  the  Austrian  House, 
the  family  of  the  Kings  of  Hungary  and  Archdukes  ol 
Austria,  ou-t  of  whom  the  Emperors  were  now  chosen 
almost  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  the  House  of  Hohen- 
zollern,  the  House  of  the  Kings  of  Prussia  and  Electors 
of  Brandenburg,  who  had  begun  to  rise  into  greatness 
under  the  Great  Elector.  But  this  did  not  begin 
till  some  time  later,  not  till  after  the  death  of  the 
Emperor  Charles  the  Sixth.  The  first  disturbance 
came — what  we  should  hardly  have  expected — from 
Spain.  The  new  French  King  of  Spain,  Philip  the 
Fifth,  under  his  minister,  Cardinal  Alberoni,  tried  to 
get  back  the  lands  which  Spain  had  lost,  especially 
the  kingdom  of  Sardinia,  which  had  passed  to  the 
Emperor,  and  that  of  Sicily,  which  had  passed  to  the 
Duke  of  Savoy.  The  Spaniards  actually  conquered 
Sardinia,  and  went  some  way  towards  conquering 
Sicily.  But  France,  England,  and  the  United  Provin- 
ces presently  joined  the  Emperor  in  the  Quadruple 
Alliance  against  Spain,  and  the  end  of  it  was  that 
Spain  had  to  give  up  her  projects,  and  the  Emperor 
and  the  King  of  Sicily  exchanged  their  two  Italian 
kingdoms.  Thus  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Sixth 
became  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  like  Frederick  the 
Second,  and  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  became  Kings  of 
Sardinia,  the  title  by  which  they  were  known  till 
the  present  King  became  King  of  Italy.  This  was 
in  1720,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Emperor  made 
what  is  called  a  Pragmatic  Sanction,  which  was 
guaranteed  by  the  chief  powers  of  Europe,  and  by 
which  all  his  hereditary  dominions,  Hungary,  Sicily, 
Austria,  and  the  rest,  were  to  pass  to  his  heirs  female, 
in  case  he  left  no  son.  Presently  this  Emperor  got 
entangled  in  a  series  of  unsuccessful  wars.  On  the 


306  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP 

death  of  Augustus  the  Strong,  in  1733,  there  was  a 
double    election    to    the   crown   of  Poland  between 
Frederick  Augustus  Electcr  of  Saxony,  the  son  of  the 
late  king,  and  Stanislaus,  who  had  before  been  made 
King  by  Charles  the  Twelfth.      The  Emperor  and 
Russia  supported  Augustus,  but,  as  Lewis  the  Fifteenth 
had  married  the  daughter  of  Stanislaus,  he  took  vipon 
him  to  make  war  on  the  Emperor,  and  he  was  joined 
by   Charles  Emmanuel  the  Third,  King  of  Sardinia, 
and  by  Philip  of  Spain,  or  Bather  by  his  wife  Eliza- 
bfth   of  Parma,  both  of  whom  had  designs  on  the 
Austrian  possessions  in  Italy.    Thus  a  war  took  place, 
in  which  the  two  Bourbon  Kings  were  joined  against 
the   Emperor,  and  in  which  for  once  England  took 
no  part.     The  end  of  this  war,  called  the    War  of  the, 
Polish  Election,  was  that  the  House  of  Austria  lost 
the  greater  part  of  its  Italian  dominions.     There  was, 
as  usual,  a  good  deal  of  shifting  among  the  smaller 
duchies,    but  the  important  changes   were   that    the 
Two  Sicilies  were  given  to  a  younger  son  of  the  King  of 
Spain — making  a  third  Bourbon  kingdom  in  Europe  — 
and  part  of  the  Duchy  of  Milan  was  given  to  the  King 
of  Sardinia,  whose  frontier,  as  usual,  thus  advanced 
a  little.     And   not   only  the  House   of  Austria,  but 
the  Empire  also  lost,  for  it  was  settled  that  the  Duchy 
of  Lorraine,  a  fief  of  the  Empire,   should   pass  to 
Stanislaus — who  gave  up  his  claim  to  the  crown  of 
Poland — for  life,  and  should  be  joined  to  France  at 
his  death.     Thus  France  again  advanced  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Germany.     The  Duke  of  Lorraine,  Francis^ 
who  had  married  Maria  Theresa,  the  daughter  of  the 
Emperor  Charles,  got  the  succession  to  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Tuscany,  where  the  line  of  the  Medici  was 
dying  out,  instead  of  his  own  Duchy  of  Lorraine. 

3.  The  "Wars  of  Austria  .ind  Prussia. — It 
was  in  this  way  settled  that  the  hereditary  dominions 
of  the  House  of  Austria  should  pass  to  the  House  oj 
I^rraine,  as  representing  the  House  of  Habsburg  in  thr 


xv.J          \VARSOFAUSTRIAANDTRUSSTA  307 

female  line.  And  it  was  no  doubt  expected  that  the 
Empire  and  the  Kingdom  of  Germany  would  pass 
quietly  along  with  the  hereditary  states.  And  all  this 
did  happen  in  the  end,  but  not  till  after  much  disput- 
ing and  fighting.  When  the  Emperor  Charles  died  in 
1740,  all  his  hereditary  dominions,  the  Kingdoms  of 
Hungary  and  Bohemia,  the  Archduchy  of  Austria,  and 
the  rest,  passed,  according  to  the  Pragmatic  Sanction, 
to  his  daughter  Maria  Theresa,  who  was  of  course 
called  by  her  highest  title,  that  of  Queen  of  Hungary, 
The  Empire  of  course  was  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Electors,  and  there  was  an  interregnum  of  two  years. 
But,  notwithstanding  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  various 
princes  began  to  lay  cla-im  to  the  whole,  or  to  particu- 
lar parts,  of  the  dominions  of  the  House  of  Austria. 
Above  all,  Charles  Elector  of  Bavaria  gave  himself 
out  as  the  rightful  heir,  and  his  claim  was  supported 
by  France.  Meanwhile  Frederick  tlie  Second  of  Prussia, 
commonly  called  Frederick  the  Great,  who  had  just 
succeeded  his  father  Frederick  William,  and  had  in- 
herited from  him  a  well-disciplined  army,  put  forth  a 
claim  to  the  greater  part  of  the  Duchy  of  Silesia,  and 
presently  took  possession  of  it  by  force.  The  next 
year  the  French  and  Bavarians  overran  Austria ;  and 
in  1742  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  was  elected  Emperor  as 
Charles  the  Seventh.  Maria  Theresa  had  now  to  take 
refuge  in  Hungary,  where,  notwithstanding  all  that  the 
Hungarians  had  suffered  from  her  predecessors,  she 
found  great  zeal  in  her  cause.  Presently  England  and 
Sardinia  came  to  her  help,  and  the  war  went  on  in 
Germany  till  1745,  when  Charles  the  Seventh  died, 
and  Maria  Theresa's  husband  Francis  was  elected 
Emperor.  From  this  time  she  was  called  the  Empress- 
Queen,  being  Queen  of  Hungary  in  her  own  right  and 
Empress  as  wife  of  the  Emperor  Francis.  The  war 
went  on  between  the  Empress-Queen,  England,  and 
the  United  Provinces  on  one  side,  and  France  and 
Spain  on  the  other,  till  1748,  when  Silesia  was  formally 


3o8  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHA» 

giv«n  up  to  the  King  of  Prussia.  It  was  under  Fred- 
erick the  Great  that  Prussia,  the  growth  of  which  had 
begun  under  the  Great  Elector,  rose  to  be  one  of  the 
chief  powsrs  of  Europe.  He  was  a  philosopher  and 
•writer,  and,  when  he  was  not  at  war,  he  did  much  to 
make  things  better  within  his  kingdom.  But  there 
was  a  good  deal  more  fighting  to  come  before  the  end 
of  his  reign,  for  in  1756  another  war  broke  out  between 
him  and  the  Empress-Queen.  This  was  called  the 
Seven  Years'  War.  Now  things  turned  about,  for  not 
only  Russia,  Poland,  and  Sweden,  but  even  France 
was  on  the  Austrian  side,  and  Frederick  was  surrounded 
by  enemies  and  left  alone  on  the  continent.  England 
however  joined  him,  and  in  1762  Peter  the  Third  oj 
Russia,  who  was  a  great  admirer  of  Frederick,  changed 
sides.  The  way  in  which  Frederick  bore  up  for  so 
Jong  against  so  many  enemies  was  one  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  of  military  skill  on  record.  There  was  another 
smaller  war  in  Germany  in  1777  about  the  succession 
of  Bavaria,  between  Frederick  and  the  Emperor  Joseph 
the  Second.  Joseph  had  been  elected  King  of  the 
Romans  in  1764,  and  he  succeeded  his  father  in  1765, 
being  also  made  by  his  mother  fellow-sovereign  of  her 
hereditary  dominions.  In  1780  Maria  Theresa  died, 
and  Joseph  reigned  alone.  Joseph  had  great  schemes 
of  reform  in  all  bis  dominions,  but  he  was  too  fond  of 
putting  everything  to  rights  according  to  his  own 
notions,  without 'regard  to  the  old  laws  of  his  different 
kingdoms,  so  that  in  the  end  he  did  more  harm  than 
good.  In  this  way  he  tried  to  sweep  away  all  the  old 
institutions  of  Hungary,  but  just  before  his  death 
in  1790  he  restored  them.  He  was  succeeded  by 
his  brother,  Leopold  the  Second,  and  he  in  1792  by 
the  last  Emperor,  Francis  the  Second.  By  this  time 
quite  a  new  state  of  things  was  beginning  throughout 
Europe. 

4.  Great    Britain. — For    a  great    part   of   thii 
rime  during  which  Great  Britain  was  so  much  mixed 


xv.]  GREAT  BRITAIN.  309 

ap  with  the  affairs  of  the  continent,  she  had  herself  a 
foreign  King.  George  the  First  could  not  even  speak 
English,  and  he  thought  much  more  of  his  Electorate 
than  of  his  Kingdom.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
George  the  Second  also,  though  he  had  got  so  far  as 
to  speak  English.  Thus  England  got  mixed  up  in 
several  wars  with  which  she  had  not  much  to  do.  At 
the  beginning  of  George  the  First's  reign,  Lewis  the 
Fourteenth,  just  before  his  death,  abetted  an  attempt 
made  in  1715  by  the  son  of  James  the  Second,  who 
called  himself  James  the  Third,  to  win  the  crowns  of 
England  and  Scotland,  for  of  course  he  did  not 
acknowledge  the  Union  of  the  two  kingdoms.  This 
attempt  failed,  and  England  was  on  good  terms,  and 
even  in  alliance,  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  was 
Regent  for  the  young  King  Lewis  the  Fifteetith.  This 
was  the  time  when  England  joined  with  France  and 
the  Emperor  Charles  to  withstand  Spain.  This  time 
England  really  was.  threatened,  for  Spain  now  took  up 
the  cause  of  the  Pretender,  as  did  Charles  of  Sweden, 
who  was  angry  because  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  as 
Elector  of  Hanover,  had  got  his  possessions  in  north- 
western Germany.  In  George  the  Second's  reign  we 
had  another  war  with  Spain,  which  began  in  1739, 
and  which  was  forced  on  the  King  and  his  Minister, 
Sir  Robert  Walpole,  by  the  general  wish  of  the  people, 
who  were  stirred  up  by  tales  of  wrongs  done  to  English- 
men by  the  Spaniards  in  America.  But  little  came 
of  this  war,  except  some  additions  to  geographical 
knowledge  in  the  shape  of  the  famous  voyages  oi 
Lord  Anson.  Then,  from  1741  to  1748,  England 
plunged  into  a  war  on  the  continent  about  a  matter 
with  which  she  had  nothing  to  do  at  all,  namely  the 
war  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  in  which,  as  we  have 
seen, England  took  the  side  of  the  Queen  of  Hungary, 
and  France  that  of  the  King  of  Prussia  and  the 
Emperor  Charles  the  Seventh.  Nothing  came  of  this 
war  either,  as  the  English  and  French  gave  back  theu 


310  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  ft:  HA  p. 

conquests  to  each  other  at  the  end  of  it ;  but  it 
should  be  remembered  that  in  1745  the  son  of  the 
old  Pretender,  Charles  Edward,  with  French  help, 
made  an  attempt  to  gain  the  British  crowns  for  his 
father.  Scotland  he  actually  did  hold  for  a  while,  and 
he  kept  court  at  Edinburgh  and  even  held  Carlisle, 
but  this  rebellion  was  quelled,  like  the  earlier  one,  at 
the  Battle  of  Culloden.  Then  a  war  with  France  arose 
out  of  the  quarrels  between  the  colonists  of  the  two 
nations  in  America,  and  this  war  got  mixed  up  with  the 
Seven  Years'  War  in  Germany.  The  war,  as  far  as 
England  was  concerned,  was  chiefly  waged  by  sea  and 
in  America;  and  under  the  administration  of  Mr.  Pitt, 
afterwards  Earl  of  Chatham,  many  victories  and  con- 
quests were  made,  especially  in  the  year  1759.  The 
war  went  on  into  the  reign  of  George  the  Third,  which 
began  in  1760,  and  it  was  ended  in  1763  by  the  Peact 
of  Paris,  by  which  England  got  back  much  that  had 
been  lost  by  the  war,  and  greatly  enlarged  her  American 
possessions.  But  presently,  in  the  reign  of  George  the 
Third,  the  greater  part  of  those  possessions  were  lost 
altogether.  An  attempt  to  impose  taxes  on  the 
colonists  led  to  resistance.  The  thirteen  colonies, 
from  New  England  to  Georgia,  revolted,  and  in  1776 
they  declared  themselves  independent,  and  thus  made 
the  beginning  of  the  great  Federal  Republic  of  the 
United  States.  The  French  stepped  in  during  the 
war  to  help  the  colonists,  and  they  were  presently 
joined  by  Spain  and  the  United  Provinces ;  and,  when 
peace  was  made  in  1783,  Great  Britain  had  to  ac- 
knowledge the  independence  of  the  States  and  to  givt 
back  Minorca  to  Spain.  But  Gibraltar,  her  other 
Spanish  possession,  was  kept,  and  its  defence  during 
this  war  against  the  forces  of  France  and  Spain  is  one 
of  the  exploits  of  which  Englishmen  are  most  proud. 
In  1782  Ireland,  which  had  hitherto  been  a  kingdom 
dependent,  first  on  England  and  then  on  Great 
Britain,  became  independent,  the  two  kingdoms  of 


xv.]  FRANCE.  Tn 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland  now  having  the  same  King, 
but  distinct  and  independent  Parliaments.  It  was 
also  during  this  time  that  the  English  power  vastly 
extended  itself  in  India,  but  that  will  be  better  spoken 
of  in  a  separate  section.  During  all  these  wars  Great 
Britain  commonly  kept  herself  to  her  position  as 
an  insular  power.  She  made  no  attempt  at  winning 
continental  dominion,  as  she  had  done  in  the  times  of 
the  old  wars  with  France.  Her  only  outlying  pos- 
sessions in  Europe  were  Gibraltar  and  Minorca ;  on 
the  other  hand,  though  foreign  powers  gave  help  to 
pretenders  to  the  British  Crown,  there  was  no  serious 
attempt  on  the  part  of  any  enemy  to  get  possession  of 
any  part  of  the  British  islands.  The  true  object  of 
these  wars  was  dominion  in  distant  parts  of  the  world, 
and  the  great  gains  and  losses  of  England  and  France 
were  not  made  in  Europe,  but  in  America  and  India. 
It  marks  quite  a  new  state  of  things  that  this  should 
be  so.  Europe  had  now  ceased  to  be  the  only  world 
of  European  nations.  The  great  maritime  powers 
held  dominions  in  the  East  and  West  greater  than 
they  possessed  at  home ;  and  the  colonies  which 
England  lost  have  grown  into  a  great  English-speaking 
nation  in  the  New  World. 

5.  France. — The  long  reign  of  Lewis  the  Four- 
teenth was  followed  by  the  reign,  nearly  as  long,  of  his 
great-grandson  Lewis  the  Fifteenth,  who  also  came  to 
the  crown  in  his  childhood,  and  reigned  till  1774. 
Lewis  the  Fourteenth,  with  all  that  is  to  be  said 
against  him  both  as  a  man  and  as  a  King,  was  at  least 
a  ruler  with  a  strong  will,  who  had  objects,  and  who 
largely  carried  those  objects  out.  But  Lewis  the 
Fifteenth,  though  not  without  capacity,  wilfully  gave 
himself  up  to  vice  and  idleness  and  the  dominion  of 
unworthy  favourites.  Yet  France,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  kept  up  her  position  as  a  great  power  throughout 
his  reign,  and  she  even  gained  some  increase  of 
territory.  We  have  already  seen  how  France  took  a 


312  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHA* 

leading  part  in  all  the  chief  wars  of  this  time — hoWi 
except  in  the  first  war,  she  was  always  in  alliance  with 
Spain,  and  opposed  to  England,  and  how  her  wara 
with  England  were  mainly  carried  on  by  sea,  and 
among  the  colonial  possessions  of  the  two  countries. 
In  Europe  France  extended  herself  in  two  places 
during  this  time,  namely  in  Lorraine,  where  the 
Duchy,  which  had  been  given  to  King  Stanislaus 
for  life  and  which  had  greatly  flourished  under 
him,  was  joined  to  France  at  his  death  in  1766. 
And,  as  by  this  time  nearly  the  whole  of  Elsass  had 
been  annexed  bit  by  bit,  the  lands  which  France 
had  taken  from  the  Empire  since  the  first  seizure  of 
the  Three  Bishopricks  now  formed  a  large  and 
compact  territory.  The  other  gain  of  France  at 
this  time  was  in  quite  another  part  of  Europe, 
namely  the  Italian  island  of  Corsica.  This  had 
been  for  a  long  time  subject  to  the  common- 
wealth of  Genoa,  But  the  Genoese  government  was 
oppressive,  and  the  Corsicans  revolted  more  than 
once.  Their  chief  leaders  were  the  two  Pao/i,  father 
and  son,  of  whom  the  secend  is  by  far  the  better 
known.  The  Genoese  called  in  the  French  to  help 
them,  and  at  last,  in  1768,  they  gave  up  their  rights 
to  France,  and  the  French  presently  conquered  the 
island.  These  annexations  happened  during  the  reign 
of  Lewis  the  Fifteenth,  during  which  time  the  internal 
state  of  the  kingdom  was  getting  worse  and  worse. 
His  grandson  Lewis  the  Sixteenth  tried  to  make 
things  better  as  well  as  he  could  ;  but  he  was  quite 
unfit  for  such  a  task,  and  he  had  in  the  end  to  suffer 
for  the  misgovemment  of  his  forefathers,  and  for  the 
despotism  under  which  they  had  brought  their  own 
kingdom  and  so  many  lands  which  they  had  added 
to  it 

6.  Spain. — We  have  already  seen  that  Spain 
under  the  new  Bourbon  dynasty,  showed,  perhaps 
because  her  dominions  were  now  so  much  smaller, 


XV.]  ITALY.  3i? 

much  more  of  life  than  she  had  shown  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  This  was 
shown  both  in  a  marked  improvement  in  her  govern- 
ment at  home  and  in  a  vast  advance  in  her  European 
position.  If  her  attempts  to  win  back  her  lost  terri- 
tory failed,  she  was  able  to  set  up  Spanish  princes 
on  more  than  one  throne  in  Italy.  In  the  time  of 
Alberoni  we  have  seen  that  France  and  England 
were  united  against  Spain ;  in  the  later  wars  it  was 
the  other  way,  and  the  Bourbon  kingdoms  of  France 
and  Spain  were  united,  by  what  was  called  the 
Family  Compact,  against  England  and  the  allies  of 
England  on  the  continent.  Presently  they  both  set 
upon  Portugal,  as  being  an  ally  of  England.  The 
reigning  King  of  Portugal  was  Joseph^  who  had  an 
able  minister  called  the  Marquess  of  Pombal.  By 
the  brave  resistance  of  the  Portuguese  and  the  help 
of  the  English,  the  French  and  Spanish  invaders  were 
driven  back.  During  this  period  the  Jesuits  were 
driven  out  of  both  Spain  and  Portugal,  having  been 
found,  as  they  were  in  most  countries,  to  be  dangerous 
to  the  civil  power. 

7.  Italy. — During  this  period  Italy  again  gained 
some  show  of  independence  as  compared  with  its 
state  in  the  seventeenth  century.  It  still  formed  a 
collection  of  distinct  principalities  and  common- 
wealths, of  which  the  commonwealths  were  oligarchies 
and  the  principalities  despotisms,  and  most  of  the 
princes  were  members  of  foreign  royal  families. 
Little  room  was  thus  left  for  any  real  national  feeling. 
Still  the  whole  country  was  not  utterly  under  the 
power  of  one  foreign  King,  as  it  had  been  in  the  days 
of  the  Spanish  dominion.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
commonwealth  of  Venice,  which  had  done  such  great 
things  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
seemed  to  lose  all  strength  and  life  after  the  loss  of 
Peloponnesos.  For  a  moment  indeed  after  the  Peace 
of  Utrecht,  and  still  more  after  the  exchange  of  Siciljf 


3>4  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHA* 

and  Sardinia,  it  might  seem  that  Italy  was  as  com- 
pletely held  down  by  the  German  branch  of  the 
House  of  Austria  as  it  had  before  been  by  the  Spanish 
branch.  Among  the  other  states  there  were  constant 
changes  during  the  several  wars,  but  things  were  at 
last  settled  by  the  Peace  of  1748.  One  Bourbon 
prince  from  Spain,  Charles,  who  afterwards  succeeded 
to  the  Crown  of  Spain,  was  settled  in  the  Kingdom  of 
the  Two  Sicilies,  another  became  Duke  of  Parma  and 
Piacenza,  and  the  Emperor  Francis  was  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany,  where  he  was  succeeded  in  1765  by  his 
son  Leopold,  who  afterwards  was  Emperor.  Leopold 
did  a  vast  deal  for  his  duchy,  and  was  as  good  a  ruler 
as  a  despotic  prince  can  be.  But  the  only  really 
national  princes  in  Italy  were  those  of  the  House  of 
Savoy,  who  were  now  Kings  of  Sardinia,  Victor 
Amadeus  the  Second  and  Charles  Emmanuel  the 
Third.  They  took  a  part  in  every  war,  and  were  not 
very  scrupulous  about  changing  sides,  but  they  always 
gained  something  in  the  end.  This  time,  by  the 
Peace  of  1748,  they  gained  another  part  of  the  Duchy 
of  Milan,  while  the  rest  was  left  to  the  House  of 
Austria.  In  all  these  changes  the  people  were  handed 
over  from  one  master  to  another  without  their  wishes 
being  thought  of  at  all.  The  only  parts  of  Italy 
where  any  life  remained  among  the  people  at  this  time 
were  Genoa  and  Corsica.  In  the  war  of  the  Austrian 
Succession  Genoa  took  the  side  of  France,  so  in  1746 
it  was  occupied  by  the  Austrians.  But  the  people, 
without  any  help  from  the  oligarchical  government, 
rose  up  and  drove  the  Austrians  out,  a  revolution 
which  had  a  good  deal  of  effect  on  the  course  of  the 
war  in  those  parts.  And  we  have  seen  that,  as  the 
people  of  Genoa  rose  against  the  yoke  of  Austria,  so 
the  people  of  Corsica  rose  against  the  yoke  of  Genoa, 
till  they  were  handed  over  to  France.  The  Popes  oi 
this  time,  especially  Benedict  the  Fourteenth  and  Cle- 
ment the  Fourteenth,  were  mostly  very  good  men,  bitf 


XV.]  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND.  315 

they  had  ceased  to  be  of  any  importance  as  temporal 
princes,  and  the  best  of  them  were  unable  to  make 
any  thorough  reform  in  their  own  dominions.  Cle- 
ment the  Fourteenth,  who  is  perhaps  better  known  by 
his  family  name  of  Ganganelli,  altogether  put  down 
the  Order  of  the  Jesuits  in  1773,  but  it  was  afterwards 
set  up  again. 

8.  Russia  and  Poland. — We  now  come  to  what 
is  really  the  greatest  event  during  this  time,  namely,  the 
wonderful  rise  of  Russia.  For  this  we  must  go  some 
way  back  to  an  earlier  period,  so  as  to  tell  the  story 
straight  on.  Russia  was  already  a  powerful  state  in  its 
own  part  of  the  world,  but  it  was  quite  cut  off  from  any 
dealings  with  Europe  in  general  till  the  reign  of  Peter 
the  Great.  He  began  to  reign  together  with  his 
brother  Ivan  in  1682,  and  alone  in  1689.  During  their 
joint  reign  Poland  finally  gave  up  to  Russia  a  great 
deal  of  the  Russian  territory  which  she  had  formerly 
held.  Presently  Peter  began  to  turn  his  mind  to 
naval  affairs.  He  improved  his  one  haven  of 
Archangel,  and  presently,  in  1696,  he  conquered  Azof 
from  the  Turks,  so  that  he  now  had  a  haven  on  the 
Black  Sea.  Then  he  twice  travelled  in  various  coun- 
tries, especially  Holland  and  England,  to  learn  such 
things  as  might  be  useful  for  his  own  people.  Between 
his  two  journeys  came  his  war  with  Charles  the  Twelfth 
of  Sweden,  which  in  the  end  turned  to  the  greatest 
advantage  of  Russia.  For  Peter  got  Livonia  and  the 
other  possessions  of  Sweden  east  of  the  Baltic,  and 
so  he  had  a  footing  on  a  third  sea.  Within  this 
newly-gained  territory  he  founded  his  new  capital  of 
Saint  Petersburg,  which  thus  supplanted  Moscow,  as 
Moscow  had  supplanted  the  earlier  capitals.  Later  in 
his  reign  he  extended  his  borders  on  the  other  Russian 
sea,  the  Caspian  Sea,  at  the  expense  of  Persia.  He 
took  the  title  of  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  which 
amounted  to  a  claim  over  the  Russian  provinces  held 
by  Poland,  and  which  besides  gave  great  offence  to 


3i6  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHA>. 

the  German  Emperors  of  the  West.  He  made  many 
changes  in  the  internal  state  of  his  dominions,  bring- 
ing the  clergy  under  the  control  of  the  civil  power, 
and  making  improvements  in  many  ways,  though  it 
must  be  remembered  that  improvements  of  this  kind, 
when  made  by  the  single  will  of  a  despot,  do  in  fact 
only  make  his  despotism  stronger.  Still  Peter  is 
entitled  to  the  honour  of  having  raised  his  country 
from  a  very  low  position  in  Europe  to  a  very  great 
one.  His  policy  was  carried  on  by  his  widow  Catha- 
rine, who  succeeded  him  in  1725  :  for  the  crown  of 
Russia  passed,  like  the  old  Roman  Empire,  sometimes 
by  will  and  sometimes  by  revolution,  without  any  very 
certain  rule  of  succession.  During  the  greater  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century  the  throne  was  filled  by  women, 
Anne  the  niece  of  Peter,  Elizabeth  his  daughter,  and 
lastly  Catharine  the  Second,  who  succeeded  in  1762 
by  the  murder  of  her  husband  Peter  the  Third,  and 
reigned  till  1796.  With  some  checks,  Azof  for  instance 
being  twice  or  thrice  lost  and  won  again  in  the  wars 
with  the  Turks,  Russia,  notwithstanding  its  internal 
revolutions,  went  on  advancing  in  the  face  of  other 
nations.  Under  Catharine  the  Second  the  great  con- 
quest of  Crim  Tartary  or  Crimea,  was  made.  Russia 
now  got  rid  of  the  last  trace  of  the  oldTartar  dominion, 
and  she  again  had  free  access  to  the  Euxine,  as  when 
Russian  fleets  threatened  Constantinople  in  the  ninth 
and  tenth  centuries.  This  conquest  on  the  part  of 
Russia  was  very  much  like  the  conquest  of  Granada  by 
Ferdinand  and  Isabel.  But  the  chief  advance  of  Russia 
towards  Western  Europe  was  made  by  her  share  in  the 
successive  partitions  of  Poland.  The  internal  govern- 
ment of  that  country  was  so  bad,  both  the  King  and 
the  people  being  subject  to  a  tumultuous  nobility,  that 
the  state  grew  weaker  and  weaker.  The  last  two  Kings, 
Augustus  Elector  of  Saxony,  son  of  Augustus  the 
Strong,  and  Stanislaus  Poniatowskt,  a  native  Pole 
were  forced  on  the  country  by  Russia,  and  attempts  al 


xv.]  NORTHERN  EUROPE.  317 

internal  reform,  as  being  likely  to  make  the  kingdom 
stronger,  were  always  checked  At  last,  in  1772,  the 
Empress  Catharine  of  Russia,  Frederick  the  Great 
of  Prussia,  and  the  Empress-Queen,  as  Queen  of 
Hungary — though  the  last  very  unwillingly — joined 
together  to  partition  Poland,  each  taking  certain 
provinces.  In  1793  another  partition  was  made  by 
Russia  and  Prussia  only,  and  in  1795  Poland  was 
altogether  destroyed  as  an  independent  nation,  and  its 
remaining  territory  was  divided  among  its  three  neigh- 
bours. What  was  then  understood  by  Poland  took 
in  both  the  old  Kingdom  of  Poland,  the  Duchy  of 
Lithuania,  and  the  Russian  provinces  which  were 
held  by  Poland.  Of  this,  Russia  got  back  most  of 
her  old  territory,  and  she  took  also  the  greater  part 
of  Lithuania.  Prussia  took  West  Prussia,  the  greater 
part  of  old  Poland,  and  a  small  part  of  Lithuania. 
Austria  or  Hungary  (whichever  we  are  to  call  it)  took 
the  rest  of  old  Poland,  and  some  territory  which 
had  been  Russian.  In  the  Russian  provinces  the 
mass  of  the  people  were  still  Russian,  and  they 
had  often  suffered  persecution  from  Poland  for 
cleaving  to  the  Eastern  Church.  This  however 
docs  not  justfy  the  breach  of  the  law  of  nations, 
and  the  other  two  powers,  which  divided  Poland  it 
self,  had  not  even  thus  much  of  excuse  to  make.  By 
this  partition,  Russia,  which  had  hitherto  stood  on 
the  confines  of  Europe,  was  brought  into  the  middle 
of  the  continent  and  into  the  thick  of  European 
affairs. 

9.  Northern  Europe. — During  this  time  the 
Scandinavian  Kingdoms,  especially  Sweden,  were  of 
much  less  account  than  they  had  been  in  the  period 
before  it.  Neither  of  them  now  took  much  share  in 
the  general  affairs  of  Europe.  Sweden  had  had  more 
than  one  war  with  Russia,  and  in  1743  she  had  to  give 
up  the  district  called  Carelia  on  the  Gulf  of  Finland, 
and  this  time  without  gaining  any  territory  to  the  West 


318  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP. 

The  history  of  the  country  is  mainly  remarkable  foi 
its  internal  revolutions.  After  the  changes  of  1720 
the  government  became  almost  wholly  aristocratic , 
but  in  1772  the  royal  power  was  set  up  again.  In 
Denmark  meanwhile  the  government  remained  an 
absolute  monarchy,  but  the  country  was  on  the  whole 
well  governed  and  prosperous,  and  its  naval  powei 
especially  was  greatly  increased.  '  During  this  time 
too  the  ever-shifting  Duchies  of  Sleswick  and  Holstein 
were  at  last  wholly  united  with  the  Danish  Crown. 
Holstein  was  held  as  a  fief  of  the  Empire,  while 
Sleswick  was  not 

10.  The  Netherlands. — During  fhis  time  those 
provinces  of  the  Netherlands  which  had  belonged  to 
Spain  were  held  by  the  House  of  Austria,  while  the 
Seven  United  Provinces  remained  independent ;  but. 
like  Sweden,  their  importance  in  Europe  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  was  very  much  less  than  it  had  been  in 
the  seventeenth.  In  the  war  of  the  Austrian  Succession, 
the  United  Provinces  supported  the  Queen  of  Hungary, 
and  the  Austrian  provinces  were  overrun  by  the  French. 
But  when,  in  1 747,  the  Dutch  territory  also  was  invaded, 
a  change  in  the  internal  constitution  followed,  by  which 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  William  the  Fourth,  was  made 
hereditary  Stallholder.  His  own  principality  of  Orange 
had  before  this  been  annexed  by  France.  During 
the  war  between  England  and  France  which  arose 
out  of  the  revolt  of  the  American  colonies,  there 
was  a  short  war  between  England  and  the  United 
Provinces,  but  both  the  grounds  of  quarrel  and  the 
terms  of  peace  had  almost  wholly  to  do  with  the 
colonial  possessions  of  the  two  countries.  Presently 
there  were  disturbances  in  the  country  and  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  Stadholder,  William  the  Fifth^ 
which  gave  both  the  King  of  Prussia  and  the  Emperof 
Joseph  the  Second  excuses  for  interfering.  By  the 
end  of  this  time,  about  1790,  the  United  Provinces 
had  sunk  into  utter  insignificance,  being  almost  wholly 


xv. J  THE  TURKS.  3,9 

under  the  control  of  Prussia.  In  the  Austrian  Nether- 
lands alro  the  changes  made  by  Joseph  the  Second 
led  to  revolts. 

ii.  The  Turks.— The  power  of  the  Turks  during 
this  time  had  altogether  ceased  to  be  dreaded  by 
Christian  nations.  The  advances  of  Russia  during 
this  time  form  the  greater  part  of  the  European  history 
of  Turkey,  but  it  was  not  till  the  reign  of  Catharine 
the  Second  that  the  advantage  set  steadily  in  on  the 
Russian  side,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the  period 
Turkey  was  decidedly  successful  on  the  side  of 
Austria.  During  the  reign  of  Mahmoud  the  First,  who 
reigned  from  1730  to  1754,  in  a  war  which  began  in 
1737,  the  Turks,  by  the  Peace  of  Belgrade  in  1739, 
recovered  from  Austria  the  city  of  Belgrade,  and  all 
that  had  been  given  up  by  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz. 
And  by  this  treaty  Russia  was  not  to  keep  any  fleet 
in  the  Black  Sea.  But  in  the  war  between  Catharint 
the  Second  and  Mustapha  the  Third,  which  began  in 
1769,  the  advantages  were  wholly  on  the  Russian 
side.  The  loss  of  territory  by  Turkey  during  the 
reign  of  Catharine  was  great.  By  the  Peace  of  Kai- 
nardji,  in  1774,  the  Sultans  gave  up  their  superiority 
over  the  Tartar  Khans  of  Crimea.  The  Khan 
was  then  recognized  as  an  independent  power,  but  the 
country  was  soon  afterwards  conquered  by  Russia. 
By  the  next  war,  which  was  ended  by  the  Treaty  of 
/assy  in  1792,  the  Turkish  frontier  fell  back  to  the 
Dniester.  But  still  more  important  than  these 
losses  of  territory  was  the  system  of  interference  in 
the  internal  concerns  of  the  Sultan's  dominions  which 
went  on  from  this  rime  on  the  part  of  Russia.  As  the 
Turkish  government  grew  weaker,  and  as  the  tribute 
of  children  was  no  longer  levied,  the  Christian  nations, 
Greeks,  Slaves,  and  others,  which  were  under  the 
Turkish  yoke,  began  to  revolt  whenever  th-ey  had  a 
chance.  In  so  doing  they  were  always  encouraged  by 
Russia,  though  they  seldom  really  gained  anything  bj 


320  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP 

Russian  meddling  in  their  affairs.  Still  this  tendency 
of  the  Christian  nations  to  revolt,  and  the  encourage 
ment  given  to  these  revolts  by  Russia,  all  mark  the 
beginning  of  a  new  state  of  things  in  Eastern  Europe, 
ind  one  which  is  going  on  still.  It  should  specially 
be  noticed  that  by  the  treaty  of  Kainardji  Russia  ob- 
tained certain  rights  of  interference  in  the  Danubian 
Principalities  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  which  were 
under  the  superiority  of  the  Sultans,  without  forming 
part  of  their  immediate  dominions.  In  these  wars, 
Russia,  which  sixty  years  before  had  had  no  Euro- 
pean haven  except  on  the  White  Sea,  was  able  to 
send  fleets  into  the  Mediterranean.  She  was  now  fully 
established,  not  only  as  one  of  the  chief  powers  of 
Europe,  but  as  the  ruling  power  in  the  south-east  as 
well  as  in  the  north-east.  The  Eastern  Church,  which 
had  been  so  long  kept  down  under  Mahometan  bond- 
age, now  again  begins  to  be  of  importance,  as  being 
the  religion  both  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Christian 
subjects  of  the  Turks  and  also  of  Russia,  which  pro- 
fessed to  be  their  defender. 

12.  The  English  Power  in  India. — It  was  in 
the  course  of  this  period  that  the  great  English 
dominion  in  India  grew  up  out  of  the  mercantile 
settlements  of  the  East  India  Company.  But  this 
was  not  till  after  a  hard  struggle  with  the  French,  who 
at  one  time  seemed  likely  to  gain  the  greatest  power 
in  the  peninsula.  In  1746,  during  the  war  of  the 
Austrian  Succession  in  Europe,  Labourdonnais,  the 
French  governor  of  Mauritius,  seized  Madras,  which 
was  kept  till  the  end  of  the  war.  But  mean- 
while Dufleix,  the  governor  of  Pondicherry,  the  chief 
French  settlement  in  India,  formed  great  schemes  of 
French  dominion  in  the  East,  and  wars  went  oil  be- 
tween the  French  and  the  English  in  India,  under 
cover  of  supporting  different  native  princes.  These 
wars  did  not  stop  even  when  France  and  England 
were  at  peace,  in  the  time  between  the  two  wars  of 


x  v.  ]         THE  ENGLISH  PO  WER  IN  INDIA .  321 

the  Austrian  Succession  and  the  Seven  Years'  War. 
In  1756  the  English  settlement  at  Calcutta  was  taken 
by  Suraj-ad-dowla,  the  Nabob  of  Bengal,  one  of  the 
princes  who  owed  a  nominal  vassalage  to  the  Great 
Mogul.  Now  it  was  that  many  Englishmen  died  in 
what  was  called  the  Black  Hole.  But  now  came  the 
great  advance  of  the  English  power  under  Clive,  and 
the  battle  of  Plassy  in  1757,  in  which  the  Nabob, 
with  a  vast  native  army  and  with  a  small  body  of 
French  auxiliaries,  was  utterly  overthrown  by  Clive's 
little  army  of  English  and  of  natives  under  English 
discipline.  This  battle  laid  the  real  foundation  of  the 
English  dominion  in  India.  But  the  war  with  France 
still  went  on  in  Southern  India  with  varying  success 
till  the  Peace  of  1763,  when  Pondicherry,  which  had 
been  taken  by  the  English,  was  restored  to  the  French. 
Since  then  it  has  been  commonly  taken  and  given 
back  whenever  there  has  been  any  war  between 
England  and  France.  But  neither  the  French  power  in 
India  nor  that  of  any  other  European  nation  has,  since 
the  days  of  Give,  been  able  to  stand  up  against  that  of 
England.  Since  that  time  the  English  dealings  with 
India  have  been  much  like  those  of  ancient  Rome  in 
the  Mediterranean  lands.  One  state  after  another  has 
first  become  dependent  and  then  has  been  incor- 
porated, just  as  when  a  kingdom  or  commonwealth 
was  made  a  Roman  province.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  all  this  time  the  English  dominion  in  India  was 
not  in  the  hands  of  the  King's  Government,  but  was  still 
in  those  of  the  Company.  It  was  only  in  1784  that 
the  affairs  of  India  were  at  all  brought  into  the  hands 
of  the  Home  Government  by  the  institution  of  the 
Heard  of  Control,  a.  body  acting  in  the  King's  name, 
to  control  in  certain  cases  the  management  of  affairs 
by  the  Company.  After  Clive,  the  most  famous  name 
in  the  history  of  British  India  was  that  of  the  Governor- 
General  Warren  Hastings,  who  was  impeached  and 
tried  before  the  House  of  Lords  on  various  charges  of 


322  THE    VISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAR 

oppression  and  misgovernment,  and  was  acquitted  aftei 
a  trial  which  lasted  many  years. 

13.  The  Independence  of  the  United  States. 
— Georgia  was  the  last  English  colony  that  was  founded 
in  North,  America  during  this  time.  The  English 
colonies  lay  wholly  along  the  east  coast ;  the  French 
possessions  in  Canada  and  Louisiana  hemmed  them  in 
to  the  north  and  west,  and  the  Spanish  colony  of 
Florida  to  the  south.  The  colonies  of  the  different 
European  nations  took  a  large  share  in  the  several 
wars  of  the  century.  In  1759  Canada  was  conquered 
by  the  English  troops,  British  and  colonial ;  this  war 
was  memorable  for  the  victory  and  death  of  General 
Wolfe  at  Quebec.  A  large  French-speaking  population 
in  Canada  was  thus  handed  over  to  English  rule,  and 
the  French  settlements  now  no  longer  stood  in  the 
way  of  the  growth  of  the  English  colonies  to  the  west. 
By  the  same  treaty  of  1 763  Florida  was  given  up  by 
Spain  to  England,  and  Louisiana  was  divided  between 
England  and  Spain,  the  Mississippi  being  the  bound- 
ary. The  French- were  thus  quite  shut  out  of  North 
America.  Then  came  the  attempt  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain  to  tax  the  colonies,  their  revolt,  and  the 
assistance  given  them  by  France,  and  afterwards  by 
Spain.  When  the  colonies  in  1776  declared  them 
selves  independent,  each  colony  formed  an  independ- 
ent State,  joined  together  only  by  a  very  lax  Confede- 
ration. But,  when  the  war  was  over,  a  closer  union  was 
found  necessary,  and  in  1789  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  as  a  perfectly  organized 
Federal  commonwealth,  remarkably  like  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Achaian  League  in  old  times,  was  fully 
established.  Each  State  kept  its  independence  in  its 
own  affairs,  but  the  Union  formed  one  nation  in  all 
dealings  with  other  powers.  The  first  President  of  the 
new  commonwealth  was  George  Washington,  who  had 
been  the  great  leader  of  the  colonists  during  the  war. 
This  constitution  was  gradually  accepted  by  all  the 


xv.]  THE   UNITED  STATES.  323 

States.  By  the  treaty  of  1 783  Florida  was  given  back  to 
Spain,  and  the  late  British  conquest  of  Canada,  with 
the  colonies  of  New  Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  and 
Newfoundland,  remained  part  of  the  British  dominions. 
The  States  were  thus  hemmed  in  to  the  north,  and 
for  a  while  to  the  south  also ;  but  they  had  free 
power  of  growth  to  the  west,  where  new  settlements 
were  quickly  founded  and  were  admitted  into  the 
Union  as  independent  States  on  the  same  terms  as 
the  first  thirteen. 

14.  Summary. — The  greatest  events  during  this 
period  are  thus  to  be  found  in  the  furthest  parts  of  the 
civilized  world.  The  rise  of  Russia  in  Eastern  Europe, 
the  foundation  of  the  English  dominion  in  India,  and 
the  establishment  of  the  United  States  in  America,  are 
the  three  greatest  events  of  the  time.  They  are  more 
than  mere  common  conquests  or  acquisitions  of  terri- 
tory. Each  one  of  them  is  the  real  beginning  of  a  new 
state  of  things.  The  English  now  fairly  took  their 
place  as  the  leading  people  of  the  earth  in  coloni- 
zation and  distant  dominion.  The  British  Empire  in 
India  is  the  greatest  example  of  distant  dominion,  as 
distinguished  from  proper  colonization,  on  the  part  of 
any  European  power ;  and  the  establishment  of  the 
United  States  as  an  independent  power  has  given  to 
a  people  of  English  birth  and  speech  the  means  of 
growing  to  far  greater  extent  and  power  than  they 
could  have  done  if  they  had  remained  dependent  on 
the  mother  country.  Geographical  knowledge  was 
also  greatly  increased  by  the  more  thorough  survey  of 
the  islands  of  the  Eastern  Ocean,  including  the  vast 
island,  or  rather  continent,  of  Australia,  which  just  at 
the  end  of  the  period  with  which  we  are  now  dealing, 
opened  another  field  for  English  colonization.  France 
was  now  altogether  driven  out  of  the  world  of  distant 
dominion,  and  the  other  colonizing  powers,  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  Holland,  could  at  most  keep  what  they 
had  got.  None  of  the  changes  which  happened  in 


32j  THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP. 

Western  Europe  at  this  time  were  at  all  on  the  samf 
scale  as  these,  for  the  gains  and  losses  of  the  mari- 
time powers  had  been  made  much  less  in  Europe  than 
in  their  distant  possessions.  In  Europe,  the  three 
Western  powers,  England,  France,  and  Spain,  kept 
nearly  the  same  position  at  the  end  of  the  period  which 
they  had  held  at  the  beginning.  The  United  Pro- 
vinces and  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  had  fallen  from 
their  momentary  greatness,  and  Italy  hardly  existed, 
except  as  the  battle-field  for  other  powers,  and  as  a 
land  in  which  the  younger  branches  of  ruling  families 
might  be  provided  for.  But  the  House  of  Savoy  was 
still  pushing  its  way,  and  it  gained  some  increase  of 
territory  by  nearly  every  fresh  treaty  of  peace.  But  in 
Eastern  Europe  the  advance  of  Russia,  at  once  against 
Sweden,  Poland,  and  Turkey,  the  way  in  which,  from 
having  been  cooped  up  inland,  she  made  her  way  into 
both  the  Baltic  and  the  Mediterranean,  and  became 
a  great  and  even  threatening  power,  was  the  greatest 
European  change  of  the  time.  Russia,  after  having 
been  thrown  back  for  so  many  ages,  at  last  won 
the  place  which  she  had  tried  to  win  when  she  at- 
tacked Constantinople  in  the  old  times.  Her  advance 
is  also  remarkable  as  bringing  into  prominence  a  race 
and  a  religion  which  had  long  been  kept  in  the  back- 
ground. The  Slavonic  nations  with  whom  we  have 
hitherto  had  most  to  do,  the  Poles,  Bohemians,  and 
others,  belonged  to  the  Western  Church,  and  were 
more  or  less  closely  connected  with  the  Western 
Empire.  But  with  the  rise  of  Russia,  a  Slavonic 
country  which  got  its  Christianity  and  civilization 
wholly  from  Constantinople,  both  the  Slavonic  race 
and  the  Eastern  Church  again  rise  into  special  im- 
portance. And  so  in  some  sort  does  the  Eastern 
Empire  also,  by  means  of  the  influence  which  the 
Russian  princes,  as  the  most  powerful  princes  of  the 
Eastern  Church,  were  able  to  exercise  on  those 
nations  of  their  own  Church,  both  Greek  and  Slavonic, 


xv.J  SUMMARY  321 

which  were  still  in  bondage  to  the  Turks.  The  ad« 
vance  of  Prussia  during  the  same  time  was  very 
important,  but  it  was  not  so  important  as  this.  The 
change  was  not  so  sudden,  and  it  was  not  so  great  in 
itself.  A  new  German  power  came  to  the  front  in 
Germany,  and  it  has  gradually  grown  to  be  the  head 
of  Germany,  much  in  the  same  way  as  Wessex  grew 
in  England,  Castile  in  Spain,  and  France  in  Gaul. 
But  its  rise  did  not,  like  the  rise  of  Russia,  bring  a 
race  and  a  religion  from  the  background  to  the  front. 
The  partition  of  Poland,  in  which  Russia  and  Prussia 
had  the  chief  share,  stands  pretty  well  by  itself  in 
history  ;  disputed  and  tributary  dominions  have  often 
been  divided  between  several  claimants,  but  there  is 
no  other  case  of  a  great  and  independent  country 
being  cut  up  in  this  way  among  its  neighbours.  These 
political  changes  and  the  rise  of  these  new  powers 
were  very  great  events  in  themselves,  and  they  were 
also  closely  connected  with  the  stir  in  men's  minds 
which  went  on  during  this  time.  During  the  eighteenth 
century  men  were  speculating  on  religion,  government, 
and  society  in  a  more  daring  way  than  they  had 
ever  speculated  on  so  great  a  scale  before.  French 
and  French-speaking  writers,  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  and 
others,  were  leading  on  men's  minds  towards  that 
general  crash  of  existing  things,  good  and  bad  to- 
gether, which  marks  the  next  period  in  so  large  a  part 
of  Europe.  And  rulers  like  the  Emperor  Joseph, 
Frederick  of  Prussia,  and  Catharine  of  Russia  helped 
to  the  same  end.  For,  though  they  ruled  as  absolute 
princes,  yet  the  great  changes  which  they  made,  both 
good  and  bad,  tended  to  unsettle  men's  minds,  and  to 
make  them  more  ready  to  break  with  the  past  alto- 
gether. This  whole  period  then  was  one  of  very  great 
importance,  but  it  was  mainly  in  the  way  of  pre- 
paration for  what  was  coming.  It  was  a  time  of  great 
advance  in  both  physical  and  moral  science,  and  one 
of  great  mechanical  discovery.  But  in  most  branchef 


326  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.          [CHAP. 

of  art,  learning,  and  original  composition  the  eight- 
teenth  century  was  below  either  the  times  before  or  the 
times  after  it.  It  seemed  as  if  the  world  needed  to  be 
stirred  up  by  some  such  general  crash  as  was  now 
near  at  hand. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION. 

Character  of  the  time  (i) — reign  of  Lewis  the  Sixteenth, 
the  States-General  of  1789^-  they  becotrt  the  National 
Assembly  (2)— Constitution  of  1790^  abolition  of  mon- 
archy;  National  Convention;  execution  of  the  King 
(2) — Reign  of  Terror ;  Robespierre ;  establishment  of 
the  Directory  (2)— foreign  wars  of  the  Republic;  rise 
of  Napoleon  Buonaparte  (2) — annexations  in  Germany, 
Italy,  and  the  Netherlands ;  wars  in  Switzerland  and 
Egypt  (2) — Buonaparte  seizes  the  chief  power  as  Con- 
sul; character  of  his  rule ;  treaties  of  I.uneville  and 
Amiens  (2,  3) — Buonaparte  calls  himself  Emperor  of 
the  French  and  King  of  Italy  (3) — conquests  oj  Buonii- 
pastc  ;  his  dependent  kings  (3) — he  invades  Russia; 
liberation  of  Germany  (3)—fall  of  Buonaparte;  his 
return  from  Elba;  battle  of  Waterloo  ;  his  final  over- 
throw^— effects  of  the  French  Revolution  in  Germany; 
abolition  of  the  Empire  ;  title  of  Emperor  of  Austria; 
the  new  Kings ;  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  (4) — 
Buonaparte's  victories  over  Prussia  and  Austria  ; 
greatest  extent  of  Buonaparte's  dominion  in  Germany 
(5)— formation  of  the  German  Confederation  (5) — 
changes  in  Italy;  its  resettlement  at  the  Peace  (6) — 
dealings  of  Buonaparte  with  Spain;  Joseph  Btiona- 
parte  made  King ;  campaigns  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton; return  of  Ferdinand  the  Seventh  (7) — King  John 
of  Portugal  goes  to  Brazil;  liberation  of  Portugal  (7) 
— changes  in  the  Netherlands;  union  of  the  whole 
Netherlands  into  one  Kingdom  (8) — the  French  in 


xvi. J  CHARACTER   OF  THE  TIME.  32? 

Switzerland;  the  Helvetic  Republic;  the  Act  of  Medi* 
ation;  formation  of  the  Swiss  Confederation  (9) — 
share  of  England  in  the  general  War;  bombardment 
of  Copenhagen  (10) — rebellion  in  Ireland ;  Union  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  (\o) — war  with  the  United 
States ;  settlement  at  the  Peace  (10) — Russian  conquest 
of  Finland;  election  of  Bernadotte  in  Sweden;  union 
of  Sweden  and  Norway  (i  i) — affairs  of  Denmark  (i  i) 
— reigns  of  Paul  and  Alexander  in  Russia  (12) — Peace 
of  Tilsit;  wars  with  Sweden,  Turkey,  &nd  Persia  (12) 
French  invasion  of  Russia;  Kingdom  of  Poland  united 
•with  Russia  (12) — decay  of  tJie  Turkish  Empire;  in- 
dependence of  Servia,  Egy.pt,  and  other  provinces  ; 
Turkish  wars  with  France  and  Russia;  accession  oj 
Mahmoud  (13) — English  conquests  in  India  ;  coloniza- 
tion of  Australia  (14) — revolutions  of  Hayti  (14) — 
growth  of  the  U-nited  States;  purchase  of  Louisiana; 
abolition  oj  slavery  in  the  Northern  States  (15) — 
Siimmary  (16). 

i.  Character  of  the  Time. — We  have  now  come, 
we  may  almost  say,  to  our  own  times,  to  times  which 
a  few  old  people  still  living  can  remember.  And  these 
times  are  so  full  of  matter  that  it  would  be  vain 
to  try  to  do  more  here  than  to  point  out  the  general 
effect  which  the  events  which  then  happened  had  on 
the  relations  of  the  states  of  Europe  to  one  another. 
It  was  a  time  which  saw  such  an  upsetting  of  the 
existing  state  of  things  everywhere  as  had  never  hap- 
pened before  in  so  short  a  space  of  time.  The  centre 
of  everything  during  this  time  is  France;  and  in  France 
at  this  time  men  did  what  had  never  been  done  before ; 
that  is,  they  went  on  the  fixed  principle  of  changing 
everything,  whether  it  were  good  or  bad,  wherever 
their  power  reached,  both  in  their  own  country  and 
elsewhere.  There  was  a  general  change  of  everything, 
often  out  of  a  mere  love  of  change,  and  there  was  in 
particular  a  silly  way  of  imitating  old  Greek  and 
Roman  ways  and  names,  even  when  they  were  nothing 
to  the  purpose.  But  in  this  general  crash  the  evil  o.' 


328  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.          [CHAP 

the  older  times  was  largely  swept  away  as  well  as  the 
good,  and  means  were  at  least  given  for  a  better  state 
of  things  to  begin  in  our  own  time. 

2.  The  French  Republic. — The  events  of  the 
French  Revolution  must  be  told  in  the  special  History 
of  France.  It  is  enough  to  say  here  that  Leu<is 
the  Sixteenth,  the  grandson  of  Lewis  the  Fifteenth, 
who  succeeded  him  in  1774,  had  to  pay  the  penalty  of 
the  misgovernment  of  so  many  Kings  who  had  gone 
before  him,  and  above  all  of  the  last  two.  Now  that 
there  was  such  a  spirit  of  thought  and  speculation 
about  in  the  world,  men  could  no  longer  bear  the 
abuses  of  the  old  French  system  of  government,  the 
absolute  power  of  the  King  and  the  monstrous  privi- 
leges of  the  nobles  and  clergy.  The  finances  of  the 
country  too  were  in  utter  disorder,  and  generally 
there  was  need  of  reform  in  everything.  Lewis  the 
Sixteenth,  an  honest  and  well-intentioned  man,  but  not 
strong  enough  for  the  place  in  which  he  found  himself, 
tried  hard  to  make  things  better,  though  perhaps  not 
always  in  the  wisest  way.  At  last,  in  1789,  the  States- 
General  were  called  together,  which  had  not  met  since 
1614.  They  were  presently  changed  into  a  National 
Assembly,  which  made  the  greatest  changes  in  every- 
thing, abolishing  all  the  old  privileges,  and  giving  all 
things  as  it  were  a  fresh  start.  Among  other  things, 
they  wiped  out  the  old  provinces,  so  many  of  which  had 
once  been  independent  states,  and  divided  the  whole 
country  into  departments,  called  in  a  new-fashioned 
way  after  rivers  and  mountains.  The  small  part  of 
Elsass  which  remained  independent,  and  the  territories 
of  Veniissin  and  Avignon  in  the  old  Kingdom  of  Bur- 
gundy, which  belonged  to  the  Popes,  were  now  finally 
swallowed  up  by  France,  Then  came  a  time  of  great 
confusion  and  rapid  changes.  In  1790  a  new  consti- 
tution was  made,  by  which  the  King's  power  was  made 
very  small  indeed,  and  the  old  title  of  King  of  the 
was  revived.  In  1792  monarchy  was  abolished 


XVI.]  THE  FRENCH  REPUBLIC.  329 

and  France  became  a  Republic  under  the  National 
Convention;  in  the  next  year  the  King  was  beheaded, 
and  religion  and  everything  else  was  swept  away. 
Now  came  the  Reign  of  Terror ;  one  party  after  another 
as  it  rose  to  power  put  its  enemies  to  death.  Among 
the  men  who  had  the  chief  hand  in  this  general  destruc- 
tion was  the  famous  Robespierre.  He  was  a  native  of 
Arras  in  Artois,  but,  owing  to  the  conquests  of  Lewis 
the  Fourteenth  in  the  Netherlands,  his  country  was 
now  French.  But,  before  long,  a  time  of  rather  more 
quiet  began  under  the  Directory.  Meanwhile  France 
was  at  war  with  many  of  the  powers  of  Europe ;  for 
Kings  began  to  be  afraid  of  the  example  of  France 
spreading.  In  1790  war  began  with  the  Emperor 
and  the  King  of  Prussia,  and,  directly  after  the  King's 
beheading  in  1793,  war  was  declared  against  England 
also.  Thus  began  the  long  Wars  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, in  which  every  part  of  Europe  had  a  share 
at  one  time  or  another,  and  which  went  on,  with  some 
stoppages,  till  1815.  The  first  part  of  the  war  may  bo 
looked  on  as  lasting  till  1797.  It  went  on  in  the 
Austrian  Netherlands,  along  the  Rhine,  and  in  Italy, 
and  it  was  in  the  Italian  part  of  the  war  that  Napoleon 
Buonaparte  began  to  make  himself  famous.  He  too, 
like  Robespierre,  was  a  Frenchman  only  through  the 
annexations  of  France,  being  an  Italian  of  Corsica  who 
had  to  learn  the  French  language.  His  victories  m 
Italy  forced  the  Emperor  Francis  to  give  up  the 
Austrian  Netherlands  to  France,  and  Piedmont  and 
Savoy  were  also  annexed.  This  was  the  way  in  which 
things  went  on  during  the  whole  time  ;  sometimes  terri- 
tories were  actually  added  to  France  ;  sometimes  they 
were  made  into  separate  states,  nominal  republics, 
which  were  altogether  dependent  on  France.  But  for 
the  old  republics  of  Europe,  whether  aristocratic  or 
democratic,  no  more  respect  was  shown  than  for  Popes 
or  Kings.  As  the  Emperor  had  given  up  so  large  a 
territory  to  France,  that  he  might  get  something  io 


330  THE  FKENCJI  KEVOI.UJ^ION. 

exchange,  he  joined  the  French  in  destroying  the 
ancient  commonwealth  of  Venice,  and  they  divided  iti 
dominions  between  them,  France  wished  to  get 
power  in  the  east  of  Europe,  and  there/ore  took  the 
Ionian  Islands  as  part  of  her  share.  Then,  in  1798, 
Buonaparte  planned  an  expedition  to  Egypt,  and,  to 
get  money,  the  Directory  attacked  Switzerland,  be- 
cause Bern  was  known  to  have  a  large  treasure.  Pre- 
sently, in  1799,  another  war  began  against  the  Emperor, 
who  was  helped  by  Russia ;  this  war  chiefly  went  on 
in  Switzerland.  At  home  the  Directory  greatly  mis- 
managed things,  and,  when  Buonaparte  came  back 
the  same  year,  he  was  easily  able  to  upset  it  and  to 
take  all  power  into  his  own  hands.  An  old  Greek 
would  have  said  that  he  made  himself  Tyrant ;  but, 
after  the  fashion  of  calling  everything  by  Roman  names, 
he  first  called  himself  Consul  and  then  Emperor ;  he 
had  a  Senate  and  what  not,  being  in  truth  a  still  more 
absolute  ruler  than  ever  Lewis  the  Fourteenth  had  been. 
3.  N  apoleon  Buonaparte. —  Buonaparte  was  now 
master  of  France,  and  he  came  nearer  to  being  master 
of  Europe  than  any  other  one  man  had  done  before. 
For  fifteen  years  the  whole  continent  was  in  confusion, 
Kings  and  kingdoms  being  set  up  and  put  down  again 
pretty  much  as  it  pleased  him.  But  in  France  itself, 
though  his  rule  was  altogether  despotic,  and  though  in 
the  end  he  made  himself  hateful  by  draining  all  the 
resources  of  the  country  for  his  endless  wars,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  land  gained  by  having  a  time  ol 
quiet  after  the  disorders  of  the  Revolution.  He  re- 
stored the  Christian  religion,  and,  like  Justinian,  put 
out  a  code  of  laws  for  his  dominions.  During  the 
time  when  he  called  himself  Consul,  peace  was  made 
with  the  Empire  at  I.uneville  in  1801,  and  with  England 
at  Atniens  in  1802.  By  the  former  peace  all  Germany 
left  of  the  Rhine  was  given  up  to  France.  The  Rhine 
was  in  the  Roman  times  the  boundary  between  inde- 
pendent German)'  and  the  Roman  province  of  Gaul; 


xvi.]  RISE  OF  BUONAPARTE.  331 

but  the  modern  kingdom  of  France  had  never  come 
anywhere  near  the  Rhine  till  the  annexations  began  iu 
Elsass.  But  now  France  got  the  Rhine  frontier  frorn 
Basel  to  its  mouth,  or  we  might  say,  from  its  source  to 
its  mouth  ;  for  Switzerland  was  now  merely  a  French 
dependency.  In  1804  Buonaparte  called  himsell 
Emperor  of  the  French,  and  he  crowned  himself  at 
Paris,  having  sent  for  the  Pope  to  anoint  him.  In  this 
his  object  was  to  give  himself  out  as  the  successor  of 
Charles  the  Great,  not  merely  as  the  successor  of  any 
of  the  local  Kings  of  France.  For  it  was  of  course 
part  of  his  plan  that  men  should  look,  as  Frenchmen 
commonly  do,  on  the  great  German  Emperor  as  a 
Frenchman.  It  shows  how  thoroughly  the  old  notion 
of  the  Empire  had  died  out,  when  such  a  pretence 
could  have  any  effect  on  men's  minds.  Since  Buona- 
parte's time  the  title  of  Emperor,  which  once  meant  so 
much,  has  ceased  to  have  any  particular  meaning. 
Everybody  that  chooses  now  calls  himself  an  Emperor ; 
the  title  has  even  been  borne  by  several  adventurers 
in  Mexico  and  the  West  Indies.  But,  besides  calling 
himself  Emperor  of  the  French,  Buonaparte  made  part 
of  Northern  Italy  into  a  kingdom,  and  called  himself 
King  of  Italy  in  imitation  of  the  old  Emperors.  No 
King  of  Italy  had  been  crowned  since  the  Emperor 
Charles  the  Fifth  was  crowned  at  Bologna,  but  now 
Buonaparte  was  crowned  again  the  next  year  at 
Milan.  Before  he  had  taken  up  these  titles,  he  was 
a°;ain  at  war  with  England,  and  he  planned  an  inva- 
sion of  that  country,  which  he  never  carried  out.  For 
the  power  of  France  by  sea  was  broken  by  the  English 
under  Lord  Nelson  at  the  great  battle  of  Trafalgar. 
From  this  time  Buonaparte  did  much  as  he  pleased  by 
land,  but  the  smallest  arm  of  the  sea  stopped  him 
everywhere.  Meanwhile  his  great  land  campaigns 
spread  with  little  stoppage  over  the  years  from  1805 
to  1809.  He  now  brought  the  greater  part  of  Western 
Europe  more  or  less  under  his  power.  He  set  up  his 


332  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTMN.  [CHAP 

brothers  and  other  dependents  as  Kings  of  Spaiu, 
Naples.  Holland,  and  elsewhere,  and' he  moved  them 
from  one  kingdom  to  another,  or  joined  their  dominion! 
on  to  France,  just  as  he  thought  good.  He  cut  short 
the  dominions  both  of  Prussia  and  Austria,  and  niadu 
himself  really  master  of  the  rest  of  Germany,  joining 
what  he  pleased  to  France,  and  calling  himself  Protector 
of  the  rest.  In  1811  his  power  stood  at  its  height 
What  he  called  the  French  Empire  took  in  France  with 
all  its  old  conquests,  Germany  west  of  the  Rhine,  the 
Netherlands  and  the  United  Provinces,  and  North-west 
Germany  also,  so  that  the  French  frontier  took  in 
Hamburg  and  Liibeck,  and  reached  to  the  Baltic.  At  the 
other  end  it  took  in  all  Western  Italy,  including  Rome  ; 
the  rest  belonged  to  the  Kingdom  of  Sta/y,  of  which 
Buonaparte  called  himself  King.  Beyond  the  Hadriatic 
a  large  territory  made  up  of  the  former  possessions  of 
Austria  and  Venice  and  the  Republic  of  Itagiisa  was 
also  part  of  the  French  Empire.  The  Kingdom  of 
Naples  was  held  by  his  brother-in-law  Joachim  Murat, 
but  Sicily  and  Sardinia  were  still  held  by  their  own 
Kings,  because  they  were  islands,  and  the  British  fleet 
could  help  them.  Denmark  was  his  ally,  and  Spain  was 
under  his  brother.  But  presently  deliverance  began 
to  come  from  two  quarters.  In  1812  Buonaparte 
thought  good  to  invade  Russia,  but  the  climate  fought 
against  him  as  well  as  the  people,  and  he  had  to  come 
back  the  next  year,  for  the  first  time,  utterly  discom- 
fited. The  next  year,  1813,  Germany  began  to  rise 
against  him,  rather  by  a  common  impulse  of  the  people 
than  by  any  act  of  the  German  governments.  But 
Austria,  Prussia,  Sweden,  and  most  of  the  smaller 
German  states,  gradually  joined  against  him.  Germany 
was  now  set  free  in  the  great  battle  of  Leipzig.  Mean- 
while, ever  since  1 808,  when  Joseph  Buonaparte\\z.&  been 
sent  to  be  King  of  Spain,  the  British  troops  had  been 
engaged  in  the  deliverance  of  the  peninsular  kingdoms. 
Now  it  was  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  won  his  greal 


EUROPE 

under 
BUONAPARTE 


20     _     30 


from  Greenwich       80 


Fisk&See.  N.  T. 


xvi.]  FALL  OF  BUONAPARTE.  333 

victories  over  several  of  Buonaparte's  best  generals 
In  1814  the  Allies  entered  France  on  both  sides,  the 
English  from  the  south,  the  other  powers  from  the 
east.  Several  battles  were  fought  at  both  ends  of  the 
country.  At  last  Paris  was  taken,  Buonaparte  abdi- 
cated, and  he  was  allowed  to  hold  the  little  island  of 
Elba,  keeping  the  title  of  Emperor.  The  French 
people  were  now  quite  weary  of  him,  and  they  gladly 
welcomed  the  restoration  of  the  old  royal  family  in  the 
person  of  the  last  King's  brother,  who  called  himself 
Lewis  the  Eighteenth.  But  in  the  next  year,  1815, 
Buonaparte  came  back  ;  he  was  received  by  the  army, 
and  reigned  again  fora  few  months,  till  the  Allies  again 
gathered  their  forces,  and  he  was  overthrown  for  ever 
by  the  English  and  Prussians  at  Waterloo.  He  now 
abdicated  again ;  but  this  time  he  was  not  trusted  to 
stay  anywhere  in  Europe,  but  was  kept  in  ward  for 
the  rest  of  his  days  in  the  island  of  Saint  Helena,  a 
British  possession  in  the  Atlantic  between  Africa  and 
America.  The  wars  of  the  French  Revolution  were 
now  over.  By  a  series  of  treaties  made  at  Paris  and 
Vienna,  the  boundaries  of  the  different  states  of  Europe 
were  settled  afresh,  and  France  had  to  give  up  the 
conquests  which  she  had  made  during  the  republic  and 
in  the  time  of  Buonaparte.  The  boundaries  of  the 
restored  kingdom  did  not  greatly  differ  from  what  they 
had  been  before  the  wars  of  the  Revolution  began. 

4.  The  Fall  of  the  Empire. — The  part  of 
Europe  which,  next  to  France  itself,  was  most  affected 
by  the  French  Revolution  was  Germany.  The 
changes  in  Italy  were  in  themselves  equally  great,  but 
Italy  had  already  been  partitioned  out  over  and  over 
again,  while  Germany  had  never  before  fallen  under  a 
foreign  dominion.  It  was  during  this  time  that  the 
old  state  of  things,  and  the  old  ideas  which  had  lasted 
so  long,  came  altogether  to  an  end.  The  Roman  Empirt 
and  the  Kingdom  of  Germany  were  now  abolished, 
even  in  name.  First  of  all,  as  we  have  seen,  thf 


334  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  [CHAP. 

Austrian  Netherlands,  which  were  now  pretty  well 
separated  from  the  Empire,  and  all  Germany  west  ol 
the  Rhine,  including  the  three  great  archbishopricks 
of  Mainz,  Ktiln,  and  Trier,  and  the  old  royal  city  of 
Aachen,  were  all  added  to  France.  Meanwhile  the 
princes  who  lost  their  dominions  by  the  Peace  of 
Luneville  were  allowed  to  make  up  for  it  at  the  cost 
of  the  bishopricks  and  free  cities  east  of  the  Rhine, 
and  a  new  electorate  of  Hessen-Cassel  was  made, 
whose  Elector,  as  it  turned  out,  never  had  any  one  to 
elect.  In  1804,  as  soon  as  Buonaparte  began  to 
call  himself  Emperor  of  the  French,  Francis  tht 
Second,  King  of  Hungary  and  Archduke  of  Austria, 
being  Emperor-elect  of  the  Romans  and  King  of 
Germany,  began  to  call  himself  Hereditary  Emperor 
of  Austria,  whatever  that  meant.  And  in  1805,  after 
the  war  had  begun  again,  and  after  the  Austrians  and 
Russians  had  lost  the  great  battle  of  Austerlitz,  the 
Emperor  made  a  treaty  with  Buonaparte  at  Pressburg, 
which  was  drawn  up  between  the  Emperor  of  Germany 
and  Austria  and  the  Emperor  of  the  French  and  King 
of  Italy.  It  was  time  that  the  Empire  should  come 
to  an  end,  when  its  chief  had  in  this  way  forgotten 
who  he  was.  And  so  it  happened  within  two  years. 
Many  of  the  German  princes  had  by  this  time  joined 
Buonaparte.  They  declared  themselves  independent 
of  the  Empire,  and  they  began  to  call  themselves  by 
higher  titles,,  King  of  Bavaria,  King  of  Wurttemberg, 
and  so  forth.  They  then  made  themselves  into  the 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  which  was  put  under  the 
protection  of  Buonaparte,  and  they  added  to  their 
dominions  such  of  the  remaining  free  cities  and 
smaller  principalities  as  they  thought  good.  This  was 
in  1806,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Emperor  Francis 
formally  resigned  the  Empire  altogether,  and  no 
Roman  Emperor  has  since  been  chosen.  Thus  the 
old  Kingdom  of  Germany,  which  had  gone  on  ever 
since  the  division  of  the  dominions  of  Charles  the 


xvi.]  THE  END  OF  THE  EMPIRE.  335 

Great,  and  the  Roman  Empire,  which  had  gone  on  in 
one  shape  or  another  ever  since  Augustus  Caesar, 
came  at  last  to  an  end.  The  Kingdom  of  Burgundy 
was  now  wholly  forgotten,  and  all  of  it  was  now  either 
annexed  to  France  or,  being  part  of  Switzerland,  was 
quite  under  French  influence.  As  for  the  third 
kingdom,  that  of  Italy,  we  have  seen  that  Buonaparte 
called  himself  King  of  it,  though  by  the  Treaty  of 
Pressburg  he  promised  that  France  and  Italy  should 
not  be  joined  again  after  his  time.  Thus  all  traces  of 
the  old  state  of  things  passed  away.  But  the  former 
Emperor  Francis  still  went  on  calling  himself  Emperor 
of  Austria,  and  his  successors  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Hungary,  the  Archduchy  of  Austria,  and  his  other 
hereditary  dominions,  have  gone  on  doing  so  ever 
since. 

5.  The  Settlement  of  Germany. — The  union 
of  the  German  States,  which  had  been  so  lax  ever 
since  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  thus  quite  passed  away. 
Buonaparte  had  now  to  deal  with  the  separate  states 
which  had  not  submitted  to  him.  Prussia  had  made 
a  separate  peace  long  before,  and  now,  in  1806,  the 
King  Frederick  William  the  Third  made  a  league  with 
France  by  which  he  obtained  the  Electorate  of 
Hanover,  which  belonged  to  the  King  of  Great 
Britain.  But  the  yoke  of  the  French  alliance  was  too 
hard  to  bear,  and  a  war  broke  out  between  France  and 
Prussia,  in  which  Prussia  was  supported  by  Saxony. 
Now  came  the  great  battle  of  Jena,  in  which  the 
Prussians  and  their  allies  were  utterly  defeated. 
Saxony  now  gave  way,  and  the  Elector  was  made  King, 
and  joined  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine.  In  the 
next  year  Prussia  was  cut  short  at  the  Peace  of  Tilsit; 
her  western  dominions  and  some  other  districts  were 
made  into  a  Kingdom  of  Westphalia,  of  which  Buona- 
parte made  his  brother  Jerome  King,  while  the  lands 
which  Prussia  had  taken  from  Poland,  except  Wes' 
Prussia,  were  made  into  a  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw 


336  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.    [CHAV.  xvi 

which  was  given  to  the  new  King  of  Saxony.  Austria 
meanwhile,  having  again  ventured  on  war  in  1809, 
was  overthrown  at  Wagram,  and  had  to  yield  he? 
south-western  dominions  to  France  and  Bavaria,  being 
thus  quite  cut  off  from  Italy  and  the  Hadriatic. 
Lastly,  North-western  Germany,  including  the  free 
sit:es  of  Liibeck,  Bremen,  and  Hamburg,  was  altogether 
joined  on  to  France.  To  crown  all,  the  German 
states  were  made  to  send  men  to  help  in  Buonaparte's 
attack  on  Russia.  Then,  in  1813,  came  the  uprising 
of  the  German  people,  which  the  German  govern- 
ments had  to  join  one  after  another.  And  lastly,  in 
1*15,  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  the  state  of  Germany 
was  finally  settled  as  it  stayed  till  a  few  years  back. 
There  w-as  no  longer  an  Emperor  or  a  King  of  Ger- 
many ;  but  the  German  princes  and  free  cities,  of 
which  last  four  only,  Liibeck,  Bremen,  Hamburg,  and 
Frankfurt,  were  left,  formed  themselves  by  a  lax 
Federal  tie  into  the  German  Confederation.  Many  of 
the  small  states  were  swallowed  up,  and  the  boundaries 
of  all  were  settled  afresh.  And  it  should  be  marked 
that  several  of  the  chief  princes  who  were  members 
of  the  Confederation  joined  it  for  parts  of  their  do- 
minions, but  not  for  all.  Francis  of  Austria,  who  had 
been  Emperor,  and  his  successors,  were  to  be  Presi- 
dents of  the  Confederation  ;  they  joined  it  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Bohemia,  the  Archduchy  of  Austria,  the 
County  of  Tyrol,  &c.,  but  not  for  the  Kingdom  of 
Hungary  or  their  other  dominions  out  of  Germany. 
So  the  greater  part  of  the  Prussian  dominions  were 
within  the  Confederation,  but  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia 
itself,  that  is,  East  Prussia  and  the  Polish  provinces, 
lay  out  of  it.  So  too  the  Kings  of  Great  Britain, 
Denmark,  and  the  Netherlands — a  new  kingdom  to  be 
presently  spoken  of — were  members  of  the  Confede 
mtion  for  Hanover  (which  was  now  called  a  kingdom), 
Hohtcin  and  Laucnbnrg,  and  Luzclburg  severally. 
The  German  princes  whom  Buonaparte  had  set  up  an 


MAP  OF 

EUROPE 

/  according  to  the 

TREATY  OF  VIENNA  1815 


"Long.  W.  10  from  Greenwich  0  Longitude  East  10  from  Greenwich 


Pisk  &  See.N.T. 


xvi.]  ITALY,  SPAIN,  ETC.  ,    337 

Kings,  those  of  Bavaria,  Wiirttemberg,  and  Saxony, 
kept  their  titles  ;  but,  as  the  King  of  Saxony  had  stuck 
to  Buonaparte  as  long  as  he  could,  a  large  part  of  his 
kingdom  was  added  to  Prussia.  All  the  princes 
promised  free  constitutions  to  their  people,  but  most 
of  them  forgot  to  give  them. 

6.  Italy. — Italy  was  as  much  tossed  to  and  fro 
during  these  times  as  Germany.  It  is  hardly  worth 
while  to  mention  all  the  little  commonwealths  and 
principalities  which  were  set  up  and  put  down.  The 
rirst  conquests  from  Austria  and  Venice  were  made 
into  the  Cisalpine  Republic,  which  was  afterwards 
changed  into  Buonaparte's  Kingdom  of  Italy.  A 
large  part,  at  last  taking  in  Rome  itself,  was,  after 
many  shiftings,  a  Ligurian  Republic,  a  Kingdom  of 
Etruria,  and  what  not,  joined  on  to  France,  and  the 
Pope,  Pius  the  Seventh,  was  got  into  Buonaparte's 
power.  In  the  South,  first  Buonaparte's  brother 
Joseph  and  then  his  brother-in-law  Murat  held  the 
Kingdom  of  Naples.  When  things  were  settled  in 
1815,  the  princes  who  had  lost  their  dominions  came 
back  again.  The  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  who  had 
all  along  kept  the  island,  got  back  the  continental 
kingdom  also.  So  the  King  of  Sardinia  got  back 
Piedmont  and  Savoy,  and  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Tuscany  and  the  lesser  principalities  were  set  up  again, 
and  the  Pope  again  held  Rome  and  his  old  temporal 
dominions.  But  the  commonwealths  were  not  set  up 
again.  Lucca  became  a  Duchy  ;  Genoa  was  joined  on 
to  Piedmont,  and  the  Duchy  of  Milan  and  the 
Venetian  dominions,  which  had  changed  their  names 
so  often,  were  made  into  the  Kingdom  of  Lombardy 
and  Venice,  and  joined  on  to  Austria.  Only  little  San 
Marino  kept  its  freedom.  Thus  Germany  and  Italy 
both  remained  disunited,  cut  up  among  a  number  of 
absolute  princes.  But  there  was  this  difference 
between  them :  the  German  princes  were  Germans, 
and  the  country  had  a  certain  unity,  however  lax,  in 


338  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.          [CHAP 

the  Confederation.  But  Italy  was  altogether  cut  up, 
A  large  part  was  held  by  Austria  and  by  the  Pope; 
and  the  other  Kings  and  Dukes  were  not  real  Italian 
princes,  but  all  looked  to  Austria  as  their  chief. 
Piedmont  indeed  was  held  by  a  native  prince,  but  ill 
government  still  was  despotic.  This  was  the  third 
time — under  Charles  the  Fifth,  under  Charles  the 
Sixth,  and  again  under  Francis  the  Second — that  the 
House  of  Austria  had  the  chief  power  in  the  Italian 
peninsula, 

7.  Spain  and  Portugal. — Under  Charles  tJu 
Third,  who  had  been  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  Spain 
went  on  greatly  recovering  herself,  as  she  had  done 
before  under  Philip  the  Fifth.  In  the  reign  of  Charles 
the  Fourth,  under  the  administration  of  Godoy,  when 
the  French  Revolution  began,  Spain  at  first  acted 
against  France;  but  afterwards  in  1796,  she  joined 
France  against  England  and  Portugal,  as  she  did 
again  when  war  broke  forth  once  more  in  1803. 
Buonaparte  presently  began  to  meddle  in  Spanish 
affairs,  and  he  caused  the  King  to  abdicate  in  1807. 
He  then  moved  his  brother  Joseph  from  Naples  to 
Spain,  but  the  patriotic  Spaniards  proclaimed  Ferdi- 
nand the  Seventh,  the  son  of  the  late  King,  though  he 
was  actually  in  Buonaparte's  hands.  Then  came  the 
great  struggle  in  which  the  French  were  finally  driven 
out  of  the  Peninsula  by  the  English  victories.  In 
1814  the  lawful  King  Ferdinand  came  back,  but  hr. 
overthrew  the  free  constitution  which  had  been  made 
during  his  captivity,  and  reigned  as  an  absolute 
monarch.  Meanwhile  Portugal,  the  old  ally  of  Eng- 
land, was  overrun  by  the  French,  and  John  the  Sixth, 
the  King,  or  rather  Regent  for  his  'mother  Maria,  left 
Portugal  for  the  great  Portuguese  colony  of  Brazil, 
where  he  went  on  reigning,  and  did  not  go  back  to 
Portugal  till  after  the  peace.  The  Portuguese  at 
home  meanwhile  shared  in  the  war  of  independence 
along  *ith  the  English  and  Spaniards. 


xvi.  J  THE  NETHERLANDS.  339 

8.  The    Netherlands.— The   Austrian   Nether- 
lands, as  we  have  seen,  were  conquered  and  joined  to 
France,   with   which   they   remained   united   till   the 
Peace.     The   Seven    United  Provinces  were  in    1795 
turned   into  a  dependent  commonwealth   called  the 
Batavian  Republic,  which  in  1806  was  turned  into  a 
kingdom  for  Buonaparte's  brother  Leii'is.    But  in  1810 
Buonaparte  took  his  brother  away,  and  joined  Holland 
and  the  other  provinces  to  France.     At  the  Peace  the 
•whole   Netherlands,    except   the   districts  which   had 
been   conquered    by   Ltwis    the   Fourteenth,   which 
France  was   allowed   to   keep,  were   formed   into   a 
Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  under  William  Prince  of 
Orange,  who  also  held  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Liizelburg 
or  Luxemburg  within  the  German  Confederation. 

9.  Switzerland. — The   old   state   of    things    in 
Switzerland,  the  Confederation  of  the  Thirteen  Can- 
tons surrounded  by  their  allied   and   subject   states, 
went  on  till  1798,  when  the  French  came  to  seize  the 
treasure  at  Bern.    Their  coming  had  the  good  effect  of 
releasing  the  Romance-speaking  people  of  Vaud  from 
the  yoke  of  Bern,  but  the  French  went  on  to  invade 
the  democratic  cantons  also.     They  now  set  up  what 
they  called  the  Helvetic  Republic,  which  took  in  the 
old  cantons  and  most  of  their  allies   and  subjects. 
But  they  were  no  longer  to  be  a  Federal  state,  in 
which   each   member  is  independent  in   its   internal 
affairs ;  the  Helvetic  Repuolic  was  a  single  common- 
wealth in  which  the  cantons  were  no  more  than  de- 
partments.    Geneva  and   some   other   of  the   allied 
districts  were  added  to  France,  some  now,  and  some 
afterwards  in  Buonaparte's    time.     But,   as   the   new 
republic  did  not  suit  the  Swiss  people,  who  were  used 
to  a  Federal  constitution,  Buonaparte  in  1803,  by  the 
Act  of  Mediation,  gave  them  a  better  constitution,  in 
which  the  old   cantons  and    several   new  ones  were 
joined  together  as  separate  states,  but  on  equal  terms, 
without  the  old  distinction  of  confederates,  allies,  and 


540  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  I  CHAP 

subjects.  Now  for  the  first  time  there  were  independ 
ent  Romance-speaking  cantons  as  distinguished  from 
allies  and  subjects,  Buonaparte  kept  Switzerland  alto- 
gether dependent  on  France,  but  on  the  whole  he 
treated  it  somewhat  better  than  he  did  other  countries. 
At  the  Peace,  Geneva  and  the  other  districts  which 
had  been  joined  on  to  France  were  set  free,  and  the 
Swiss  Confederation  of  twenty-two  cantons  was  formed, 
though  with  very  lax  union  among  themselves.  The 
neutrality  of  the  Confederation  was  acknowledged,  as 
was  also  that  of  the  northern  part  of  Savoy,  which  had 
once  belonged  to  Bern.  This,  with  the  rest  of  Savoy, 
went  back  to  the  King  of  Sardinia,  and  it  was  not 
to  be  given  by  him  to  any  power  except  Switzerland. 

10.  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. — The  exter- 
nal history  of  this  nation  chiefly  consists  of  the 
long  war  with  France,  with  the  short  stoppage  after 
the  Peace  of  Amiens.  England  was  the  one  enemy 
whom  Buonaparte  could  never  cajole  or  win  over,  as, 
at  one  time  or  another,  he  did  all  the  powers  of  the 
continent.  She  was  the  object  of  his  special  hatred, 
and  he  did  all  that  he  could  to  ruin  her  trade,  by 
forbidding,  when  he  was  at  the  height  of  his  power 
after  the  Peace  of  Tilsit,  all  dealings  between  England 
and  any  continental  state.  But  England  kept  her 
power  by  sea,  and,  except  the  great  campaigns  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  it  was  by 
sea  that  the  English  share  in  the  war  was  carried  on. 
The  great  victories  of  Nelson,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile 
in  1798  and  at  Trafalgar  in  1805,  altogether  broke 
the  naval  power  of  France,  and  of  Spain,  which  at 
Trafalgar  was  joined  with  France.  Equally  successful, 
but  less  righteous,  were  the  two  attacks  on  Denmark 
in  1 80 1  and  1806,  in  which  latter  Copenhagen  was 
bombarded.  Meanwhile  there  was  a  rebellion  in 
Ireland  in  1798,  the  suppression  of  which  was  followed 
by  the  union  of  the  Kingdom  and  Parliament  of 
Ireland  with  that  of  Great  Britain  in  1800,  when  tht 


xvi.]         THE  SCANDINAVIAN  KINGDOMS.          341 

title  of  King  of  France,  which  had  been  borne  by 
every  King  since  Edward  the  Thhd,  was  at  last 
dropped.  Towards  the  end  .of  the  great  war  with 
France  there  was  unhappily  a  war  with  the  United 
States  from  1813  to  1815.  By  the  final  Peace  Eng- 
land, as  usual,  kept  large  distant  conquests,  but  she 
gained  no  territory  in  Europe,  except  the  island  <>' 
Malta,  which,  up  to  the  French  Revolution,  had  be- 
longed to  the  Knights  of  Saint  John,  and  of  the 
Frisian  island  of  Heligoland,  a  possession  of  Denmark. 
The  Ionian  Islands  also,  part  of  the  old  Venetian 
dominion  in  Greece,  were  made  into  a  Republic, 
under  a  protectorate  on  the  part  of  England  which 
did  not  differ  much  from  actual  sovereignty. 

ii.  The  Scandinavian  Kingdoms. — At  the 
beginning  of  the  French  Revolution  the  reigning  King 
of  Sweden,  Gustavus  the  Third,  was  engaged  in  a  war 
with  Russia,  which  led  to  no  change  on  either  side. 
He  also  increased  the  royal  power,  but  he  was  mur- 
dered in  1792.  The  next  King,  Gustavus  the  Fourth, 
was  more  zealous  than  anybody  else  against  Buona- 
parte and  the  French ;  but  he  had  no  means  of  doing 
any  great  things,  and  he  contrived  to  offend  all  other 
powers  and  his  own  subjects  as  well.  Russia  now- 
conquered  all  Finland,  and  in  1809  the  King  was 
deposed,  and  the  free  constitution  was  restored,  with- 
out either  the  despotism  or  the  oligaichy  which  had  of 
late  prevailed  by  turns.  As  the  new  King,  Charles  tht 
Thirteenth,  had  no  children,  the  Swedes  chose  Berna- 
dotte,  one  of  Buonaparte's  generals,  to  be  Crown  Prince, 
and  to  succeed  to  the  kingdom  at  the  King's  death.  In 
1813  Bernadotte  joined  in  the  war  of  liberation  in 
Germany,  and  led  the  Swedish  troops  against  his  old 
master.  As  Sweden  had  taken  the  part  of  the  Allies, 
while  Denmark  had  been  on  the  ide  of  France,  ifwas 
settled  at  the  Peace  that  Norway,  which  had  all  this 
time  had  the  same  king  as  Denmark,  should  be  joined 
to  Sweden,  to  make  up  for  the  loss  of  Finland,  which 


342  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.          [CHAP. 

was  kept  by  Russia.  But  the  Norwegians  withstood 
this  arrangement;  they  chose  a  Danish  prince  for 
their  King,  and  they  made  themselves  the  freest  con- 
stitution of  any  state  in  the  world  that  has  a  King 
at  all.  They  were  so  far  conquered  that  they  had 
to  accept  the  union  with  Sweden,  but  they  joined  it 
only  as  a  perfectly  independent  kingdom,  keeping  its 
new  constitution.  Meanwhile  Denmark  still  remained 
an  absolute  monarchy.  When  the  Empire  came  to  an 
did,  the  King  of  Denmark  incorporated  his  German 
tluchy  of  Holstein  with  his  kingdom.  At  the  Peace 
Denmark  obtained  the  small  piece  of  Pomerania  which 
was  held  by  Sweden;  but  this  was  presently  given  up  to 
Prussia  in  exchange  for  the  Duchy  of  Lautnburg,  and 
the  King  of  Denmark  became  a  member  of  the  German 
Confederation  for  the  Duchies  of  Holstein  and  Lauen- 
burg. 

12.  Russia  and  Poland. — After  the  death  of 
Catherine  the  Second  in  1796,  her  son  Paul  succeeded. 
In  his  time  the  Russian  armies  acted  with  those  oi 
Austria  in  the  campaigns  of  Italy  and  Switzerland,  but 
Paul  soon  afterwards  made  a  separate  peace  with 
Buonaparte.  Paul  seems  to  have  been  quite  mad,  and 
he  was  murdered  in  1801.  His  son  Alexander  re- 
mained at  peace  with  France  till  1805,  when  he  again 
joined  with  Austria,  but,  after  the  overthrow  of  both 
Aus'.ria  and  Prussia,  he  made  peace  with  Buonaparte  at 
Tihif,  and  a  small  part  of  the  Lithuanian  possessions 
of  Prussia  was  added  to  Russia.  Alexander  and 
Buonaparte  seemed  to  have  pretty  well  agreed  to  divide 
Europe  between  them,  as  if  they  were  to  be  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Emperors.  Russia  and  France 
remained  at  peace  for  six  years,  during  which  time 
Finland  was  conquered  from  Sweden  and  a  war  was 
waged  with  the  Turks.  In  this  last  the  Russian  frontier 
was  advanced  to  the  Danube,  much  as,  longt  before, 
the  French  frontier  had  reached  the  Rhine.  By  ano- 
ther war  which  went  on  at  the  same  time  with  Persia^ 


xvi.]  RUSSIA  AND  TURKEY. 


343 


Russia  gained  a  large  territory  in  the  land  between  the 
Euxine  and  Caspian  Seas.  At  last,  in  1812,  came  the 
French  invasion  of  Russia,  which  led  to  the  fall  of 
Buonaparte,  and  Russia  took  a  leading  part  in  the  last 
wars  in  which  he  was  overthrown.  At  the  general 
Peace  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  which  Buonaparte 
had  formed  out  of  the  Polish  provinces  of  Prussia,  and 
to  which  the  Polish  territory  gained  by  Austria  at  the 
last  partition  had  been  added,  was  taken  away  from 
the  King  of  Saxony.  The  Grand  Duchy  of  Posen  was 
given  back  to  Prussia.  The  rest  of  the  Duchy  of 
Warsaw  was  made  into  a  Kingdom  of  Poland,  with  a 
constitution  of  its  own,  which  was  united  with  Russia 
as  a  separate  state,  like  Sweden  and  Norway,  or  like 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  just  before  the  union.  The 
city  of  Cracow,  the  old  capital  of  Poland,  which  stood 
at  the  meeting  of  the  dominions  of  the  three  powers, 
Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  was  made  into  a  separate 
commonwealth,  under  the  protection  of  all  of  them. 
The  new  Kingdom  of  Poland  did  not  differ  very  much 
in  extent  from  the  old  kingdom  before  its  union  with 
Lithuania  and  its  conquests  from  Prussia.  It  did  not 
take  in  all  that  had  belonged  to  the  old  Poland,  but  it 
took  in  some  other  lands  which  had  not  been  part  of  it. 
13.  The  Turks. — Sultan  Sdim  the  Third  came  to 
the  throne  in  1789,  while  Turkey  was  engaged  in  the 
war  with  Russia  and  Austria  which  was  ended  by  the 
Peace  ofjassy.  He  had  to  struggle  against  enemies  on 
ev.ery  side.  The  Turkish  power  had  now  got  very 
weak,  and  many  of  the  subject  nations,  Christian  and 
Mahometan,  were  seeking  for  independence.  Many 
of  the  distant  Pashas  in  Europe  and  Asia  seemed  likely 
to  set  up  for  themselves,  just  as  happened  at  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  Caliphate  and  of  the  Mogul  Empire. 
Especially  the  Christians  of  Serbia  revolted  in  1806 
under  Czerni  George  (that  is,  Black  George}.  Servia 
was  conquered  again  in  1813,  but  in  1815  it  again 
revolted  under  Milosh  Obrenowttz,  and  it  was  after  a 


344  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  [CHAF 

while  acknowledged  as  a  separate,  though  in  som« 
degree  dependent,  state,  as  it  still  remains.  And  in 
Czernagora  or  Montenegro,  the  small  mountain  land 
on  the  borders  of  the  old  Venetian  and  Turkish 
possessions,  the  Christians  had  never  submitted,  and- 
they  kept  up  a  constant  warfare  with  the  Turks.  So 
did  the  Christians  of  Souli  in  Epeiros  and  their  Ma- 
hometan neighbour  Ali  Pasha  of  Joannina ;  and  the 
Mamelukes  in  Egypt  were  practically  independent.  In 
the  midst- of  all  this  came  the  successive  French  and 
Russian  wars,  and  it  was  of  course  the  interest  ol 
Russia  to  stir  up  discontent  everywhere  among  the 
subject  nations,  and  especially  to  put  herself  forward 
as  the  protector  of  all  who  belonged  to  the  Eastern 
Church.  In  the  war  with  France  both  Russia  and 
England  naturally  took  the  Turkish  side,  and  it  was  by 
English  help  that  the  French  were  dnven  out  of  Syria 
and  Egypt.  In  the  war  with  Russia,  equally  naturally 
as  things  stood  then,  England  was  on  the  Russian  and 
France  on  the  Turkish  side.  But  Selim,  who  was  a 
reformer,  was  deposed  in  1807  and  presently  murdered. 
Then  came  Mahmoud  the  Second,  whose  reign  lasted 
till  1839,  taking  in  great  events  which  will  come  in  the 
next  chapter. 

14.  British  Possessions  abroad. — It  was  dur- 
ing this  time  that  the  English  dominion  was  practically 
spread  over  nearly  all  India,  During  the  adminis- 
trations of  the  Marquess  Cornwallis  and  the  Marquesi 
iVcllesley  as  Governors-General,  the  greater  part  of 
the  country  was  either  annexed  to  the  English  do- 
minions or  brought  wholly  under  British  influence.  In 
the  course  of  the  war  large  conquests  were  also  made 
among  the  French,  Dutch,  and  Spanish  possessions, 
and  by  these  means  England  acquired  Ceylon,  the  great 
colony  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hi>pc,  the  Mauritius  01 
hie  of  France,  several  of  the  West  India  islands,  and  a 
small  territory  in  South  America.  Colonization  was 
aJso  beginning  in  Australia  and  in  the  neighbouring 


xvi.]  THE  UNITED  STATES.  345 

island  of  Tasmania  or  Van  Dieman's  Land.  Mean- 
while we  may  mention,  though  it  did  not  happen  in 
any  British  colony,  that  in  the  island  of  Saint 
Domingo,  Hispaniola,  or  ffayti,  which,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Revolution,  was  held  partly  by  France  and 
partly  by  Spain,  the  negroes  in  both  parts  set  up  for 
themselves.  A  number  of  revolutions  followed  in 
imitation  of  those  in  Europe ;  sometimes  republics 
were  set  up,  while  sometimes  a  successful  negro  called 
himself  Emperor  in  Hayti,  just  as  Buonaparte  did  in 
France. 

15.  The  United  States — The  new  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  came  into  force  in  the  same  year 
that  the  French  Revolution  began,  and,  for  about  forty 
years,  a  remarkable  succession  of  able  rulers  filled  the 
office  of  President.     The  republic  grew  and  prospered, 
and  a  great  number  of  new  States  arose,  especially  in 
the  lands  to  the  West.     But  one  territory  was  added 
in    a    different  way.     Spain   had   now  given  up   her 
possessions  in  Louisiana  to  France,  and  in  1803  the 
whole   of  the  French  possessions  in  North  America 
were  bought  by  the  United  States.     The  States  thus 
gained,  not  only  the  territory  which  forms  the  present 
State  of  Louisiana,  but  a  claim  to  all  the  lands  beyond 
the  Mississippi  which  lay  south  of  the  British  and  north 
of  the   Spanish  settlements.     Out  of  this  territory  a 
great  number  of  new  States  have  gradually  been  made. 
During  this  time  too  negro  slavery  was   done  away 
with  in  the  Northern  States  of  the  Union,  but  not  in 
the  Southern.     Out  of  this  difference  mainly  came  the 
disputes   between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States 
which  had  been  so  important  in  late  years. 

1 6.  Summary. — Thus,  in  the  space  of  about  five- 
and-twenty  years,  Europe  was  more  changed  than  it 
had  ever  been  before  in  the  same  space  of  time.     The 
great  wonder  of  these  times  was  that,  in  France  itself 
and  in  all  the  countries  which  were  brought  altogether 
under  French  influence,  old  ideas  and  old  institutions 


346  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.          (CHAP. 

were  utterly  swept  away  in  a  way  that  had  neve! 
happened  before.  It  followed  of  course  that  much 
that  was  good  and  much  that  was  bad  perished  to- 
gether. France  itself,  since  the  Revolution,  has  never 
had  a  government  of  any  kind  that  could  last  for  any 
time.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  none  of  the  ever- 
shifting  French  governments  have  brought  in  anything 
like  the  abuses  and  oppressions  of  the  olH  monarchy. 
So  in  other  countries,  where  the  old  governments  went 
on  or  where  the  kings  came  back  again  at  the  general 
peace,  the  restored  princes  mostly  forgot  their  pro- 
mises and  went  on  reigning  as  despots ;  yet  men  in 
general  had  learned  lessons  which  they  never  forgot, 
and  which  bore  fruit  afterwards.  Even  where  there 
was  no  great  political  change,  there  was  a  wide  social 
change ;  and  we  may  say  generally  that,  since  the 
French  Revolution,  there  has  been  no  part  of  Europe 
where  the  people  have  been  so  utterly  down-trodden 
as  they  were  in  many  parts  before.  Thus  serfage, 
answering  to  villainage  in  the  old  times  in  England, 
has  been  abolished  wherever  it  still  went  on,  though 
in  Russia  this  has  been  done  only  quite  lately  by  the 
present  Emperor.  And,  though  no  man  ever  did  more 
than  both  Buonaparte  himself  and  the  Allies  who  over- 
threw him  in  parting  out  nations  to  this  and  that  ruler 
without  asking  their  leave,  yet  during  all  this  time 
ideas  were  growing  up  which  have  taught  men  that 
such  things  should  not  be  done.  So  again,  though 
the  union  both  of  Germany  and  of  Italy  was  not  to 
happen  at  once,  yet  the  wars  of  Buonaparte  led  men  in 
both  countries  in  different  ways  to  feel  more  strongly 
than  they  had  ever  felt  before  that  all  Germans  and  all 
Italians  were  really  countrymen,  and  that  they  ought 
to  be  more  closely  joined  together.  As  for  particulai 
changes,  France  came  out  at  the  end  of  the  war  with 
nearly  the  same  boundaries  and  under  the  same 
dynasty  which  she  had  at  the  beginning,  but  with  her 
internal  state  utterly  changed  England  had  raised 


.<vi.]  SUMMARY.  347 

her  own  position  in  Europe  to  the  highest  pitch  ;  her 
European  territory  had  been  increased  only  by  one  or 
two  small  islands,  but  she  had  vastly  increased  her 
colonial  dominions.  Germany  had  changed  in  every- 
thing ;  the  Empire  was  gone,  and  after  the  time  oi 
confusion,  a  lax  Confederation  had  at  last  arisen,  in  which 
it  could  not  fail  that  the  two  great  states  of  Austria 
and  Prussia  would  strive  for  the  mastery.  Italy  was 
still  cut  up  into  a  crowd  of  small  states  ;  Austria  held 
a  large  part  of  Northern  Italy,  and  had  a  commanding 
influence  in  the  whole  peninsula.  Spain  had  got  back 
her  old  dynasty.  Portugal  might  be  said  to  have  be- 
come a  dependency  of  Brazil,  instead  of  Brazil  being 
a  dependency  of  Portugal ;  this  is  the  only  case  of  a 
state  of  the  Old  World  being  governed  from  the  New. 
Switzerland  had  got  rid  of  the  old  distinctions,  and  a 
Confederation  on  equal  terms  had  been  made.  The 
whole  of  the  Netherlands,  less  happily,  were  joined  into 
a  single  kingdom.  Sweden  finally  withdrew  from  the 
lands  east  and  south  of  the  Baltic,  but  the  whole  of  the 
greater  Scandinavian  peninsula  came  under  one  ruler, 
though  its  two  parts  remained  distinct  kingdoms, 
Norway  keeping  her  new  and  very  free  constitution. 
Russia  had  grown  at  all  points,  and  Poland  had  been 
restored  in  a  kind  of  way,  though  not  in  a  way  at  all 
likely  to  last.  In  the  New  World  the  great  English- 
speaking  commonwealth  was  fast  advancing.  And  this 
time,  as  commonly  happens  in  times  of  great  general 
stir,  was  a  time  of  great  inventions  and  of  great  writers 
in  various  ways.  Germany,  above  all,  now  thoroughly 
awoke,  and  both  her  learned  men  and  her  original  writ- 
ers began  to  take  the  place  which  they  have  ever  since 
kept 


RKUN'ON  OF  GKRMAN  Y  AND  ITAL  Y.   \cn\r 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    REUNION   OF    GERMANY  AND   ITALY. 

Character  of  the  present  time;  stronger  feeling  of  nation- 
ality ;  change  in  the  nature  of  wars  (i) — revolutions 
in  France ;  reign  of  Lewis  the  Eighteenth  ;  illegal  acts 
and  deposition  of  Charles  the  Tenth;  Revolution  oj 
July  (2) — reign  of  Louis- Philippe;  attempts  of  Louis- 
Napoleon  Buonaparte  (2) — Devolution  of  February  ; 
Louis-Philippe  driven  out ;  the  second  Republic; 
administration  of  Cavaignac  (2) — Louis- Napoleon 
Buonaparte  chosen  President ;  he  seizes  absolute  power 
and  calls  himself  Emperor  (2) — his  wars  with  Russia 
and  Austria;  Savoy  and  Nizza  taken  from  Italy  (3) 
— he  attacks  Prussia;  Prussia  supported  by  all  Germany; 
victories  of  the  Germans;  Buonaparte  taken  prisoner ; 
Paris  taken  ;  Elsass  recovered  by  Germany  (3) — the 
third  Republic  ;  the  Commune  of  Paris  ;  administration 
of  M.  Thiers  (3) — steps  towards  the  union  of  Germany  ; 
the  Zollverein — revolutions  of  1848  (4) — war  between 
Prussia  and  Austria  ;  formation  of  the  North-German 
Confederation;  Austria  shut  out  of  Germany  (4) — 
union  of  Germany  against  France ;  the  southern  states 
join  the  Confederation;  King  William  chosen  Emperor 
(4) — disturbances  in  Italy;  dominion  of  Austria; 
reign  of  Charles- Albert  in  Sardinia  (5) — reign  of  Pius 
the  Ninth ;  revolutions  and  wars  of  1 848  ;  the  new 
republic  suppressed  (5) — constitutional  reign  of  Victor 
Emmanuel  in  Sardinia;  his  second  war  with  Austria; 
help  given  by  France  ;  French  attempts  to  divide  Italy 
(5,  6) — the  Italian  States  join  Sardinia;  exploits  of 
Garibaldi ;  Victor- Emmanuel  chosen  King  of  Italy  i 
the  Pope  kept  at  Rome  by  the  French  (6)— Italy  joins 
Prussia  against  Austria ;  recovery  of  Venice  (6) — re- 
covery of  Rome  (6) — reign  of  Ferdinand  the  Fifth  cj 
Hungary;  revolutions  in  Hungary  and  Austria  i 


xvn.j  CHARACTER  OF  THE  7YJ/7T. 


349 


Hungary  conquered  by  Russian  help  (7) — reforms  after 
the  war  with  Prussia;  Francis  Joseph  King  of 
Hungary  <j)~weakness  of  the  Turns;  Greek  War  of 
Independence;  battle  of  Navarino  ;  kingdom  of  Greece 
(8)—  wars  between  Turkey  and  Russia;  independence 
*f  Egypt  (9) — Crimean  War;  affairs  of  the  Danubia*. 
Principalities  (9) — union  of  Russia  and  Poland^ 
revolts  of  the  Poles  under  Nicholas  and  Alexander  tht 
Second;  serfage  abolished;  suppression  of  the  re- 
public of  Cracow  (10) — reign  of  Ferdinand  the  Seventh 
in  Spain;  revolts  on  behalf  of  the  Constitution , 
intervention  of  France  (ll) — civil  war  on  the  death  oj 
Ferdinand;  reign  and  deposition  of  Isabel;  election 
of  Amadeus  of  Italy  (11) — revolutions  and  civil  war 
of  Portugal;  reign  of  Donna  Maria  (u) — separation 
of  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands ;  affairs  of  Luxem- 
burg1 (12) — changes  of  government  in  the  Swiss  Can- 
tons; war  of  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  Cantons; 
establishment  of  the  Federal  Constitution  (13) — Den- 
mark becomes  a  constitutional  state ;  disputes  between 
Denmark  and  the  Duchies ;  Sleswick  and  Holstein 
joined  to  Prussia  (14) — affairs  of  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way; reforms  in  Sweden  (15) — affairs  in  Great 
Britain;  less  interference  in  continental  affairs  than 
before ;  extension  and  increased  independence  of  the 
British  Colonies ;  abolition  of  slavery  (16) — wars  ana 
mutiny  in  India;  the  government  transferred  from  the 
Company  to  the  Crown  (16)— -firm  union  of  all  Great 
Britain;  troubles  in  Ireland ;  measures  for  its  benefit 
(16) — revolt  of  the  Spanish  colonies  in  America; 
revolutions  of  Mexico  (17) — separation  of  Brazil  from 
Portugal  ( 1 8)  —  advance  of  the  United  States  ;  secession 
and  re  conquest  of  the  South  States;  abolition  oj 
slavery  (19) — Summary  (20). 

\.  Character  of  the  Time. — We  have  now 
come  altogether  to  our  own  times,  and  there  is  so 
much  to  tell  that  we  must  cut  our  tale  very  short 
indeed.  A  long  time  of  peace  has  been  followed 
by  a  time  full  of  wars.  And  there  is  much  to  mark 
in  these  latest  wars.  Military  science  has  greatly 
advanced,  and  the  means  of  getting  about  have  been 


350      REUNION  OF  GERMANY  AND  ITALY.   [CHAP, 

greatly  improved.  It  has  therefore  followed  that  wan 
have  been,  on  the  one  hand,  carried  on  with  much 
greater  armies,  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  have 
been  brought  to  an  end  in  a  much  shorter  time  than 
formerly.  There  has  been  no  Thirty  Years'  War,  not 
even  a  Seven  Years'  War,  in  our  time.  There  has 
also  been  a  much  stronger  feeling  of  nationality  than 
there  ever  was  before.  Some  nonsense  has  been 
talked  about  this  matter,  because  it  is  not  always  easy 
to  say  what  makes  a  nation.  For,  though  language 
proves  more  than  any  other  one  test,  it  will  not 
always  do  by  itself.  Thus  in  Switzerland  four  lan- 
guages are  spoken  :  yet  the  Swiss  certainly  make  one 
nation.  But,  when  men  thoroughly  feel  themselves 
to  be  one  nation,  when  they  wish  to  come  together 
as  such  and  to  get  rid  of  the  dominion  of  foreigners, 
it  is  clearly  right  that  they  should  be  able  to  do  so. 
Now  this  is  what  in  different  parts  of  Europe  men 
have  been  striving  to  do  in  our  own  time  more  than 
they  ever  did  before :  and  this  feeling  has  been  shown 
above  all  things  in  the  joining  together  of  the  great 
nations  of  Germany  and  Italy,  which  had  been  so 
long  split  up  into  a  number  of  small  states.  This 
change  is  the  greatest  event  of  our  times ;  but  it  will 
perhaps  be  better  understood  if  \ve  first  run  through 
the  changes  that  have  happened  in  France,  as  they 
have  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  history  of  the  other 
countries,  but  we  must  tell  the  tale  in  as  few  words  as 
may  be. 

2.  Revolutions  in  France.—  After  the  final 
overthrow  of  Buonaparte,  Lewis  the  Eighteenth  carne 
back  again,  and  reigned  as  a  constitutional  King,  but 
many  of  those  who  came  with  him  would  gladly  hava 
had  the  old  state  of  things  back  again,  when  the  King 
ruled  as  he  pleased,  and  when  the  nobles  and  clergy 
were  set  up  above  the  rest  of  the  nation.  Of  this 
sort  was  his  brother,  the  next  King  Charles  the  Tenth, 
who  was  the  last  who  was  crowned  at  Rheims,  and 


xvii.]          REVOLUTIONS  IN  FRANCE.  35: 

the  last  who  called  himself  King  of  France.  For 
when,  in  1830,  he  put  out  some  ordinances  which 
were  wholly  against  the  law,  the  people  of  Paris  rose, 
and  King  Charles  was  driven  out  in  the  Revolution  oj 
'fitly.  We  may  mark  in  all  these  changes  how  the  on* 
city  of  Paris  always  acts,  and  how  the  rest  of  France 
accepts  what  it  does.  This  time,  when  the  King  was 
driven  out,  his  cousin  Louis-Philippe  Duke  of  Orleans 
was  made  King,  with  the  old  title  of  King  of  the 
French,  and  with  a  freer  constitution.  France  was  not 
engaged  in  any  great  wars  during  the  time  of  these 
three  Kings ;  only  in  Africa  the  piratical  power  of 
Algiers  was  put  down,  and  all  that  part  of  the  coast  of 
Africa  became  a  French  dominion.  After  some  re- 
volts at  Lyons  and  Paris  early  in  his  reign,  Louis- 
Philippe  reigned  quietly  till  1848;  only  twice  in  his 
reign  Louis-Napoleon  Buonaparte,  a  nephew  of  the 
first  Buonaparte,  tried  to  make  a  disturbance.  The 
first  time  he  was  allowed  to  go  free ;  the  second  time 
he  was  imprisoned,  but  he  escaped.  But  in  1848 
the  King's  government  had  become  unpopular,  and 
in  February  of  that  year  he  was  driven  out,  as  Charles 
the  Tenth  had  been.  This  time  a  Republic  was  set 
up,  and  in  June  there  was  a  second  revolt  in  Paris 
of  the  more  extreme  republicans,  which  was  put  down 
by  Genera"!  Cavaignac.  But  when  the  President  of  the 
Republic  was  tobe  chosen,  Louis-Napoleon  Buonaparte, 
who  had  been  allowed  to  come  back,  was  chosen  by 
many  votes  over  Cavaignac.  He  was  chosen  President 
for  four  years,  and  he  swore  to  be  faithful  to  the  re- 
public. But  at  the  end  of  the  third  year,  in  Decem- 
ber 1851,  with  the  help  of  the  army,  he  seized  upon 
the  government,  as  his  uncle  had  done,  and  called 
himself  President  for  ten  years  with  nearly  absolute 
power.  The  National  Assembly,  which  passed  a  vote 
to  depose  him,  was  dissolved  by  force ;  many  men 
were  killed,  and  others  were  sent  to  the  unhealthy 
colony  of  Cayenne,  while  most  of  the  chief  men  of 


352     REUNION  OF  GERMANY  AND  ITALY.  [CHAP 

the  country  were  imprisoned  for  a  while.  A  ycal 
after,  in  December  1852,  he  called  himself  Emperor, 
as'  his  uncle  had  done  before  him. 

3.  The  Wars  of  France. — When  Louis-Napo- 
leon Buonaparte  took  the  title  of  Emperor,  he  gave 
out  that  the  Empire  should  be  peace  ;  but  there  have 
been  wars  in  Europe  ever  since,  in  which  France  has 
taken  the  chief  part.  In  1854,  when  a  quarrel  again 
arose  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  France  and  Eng- 
land both  joined  in  the  war  against  Russia  and  shared 
in  the  victories  over  the  Russians  in  the  Crimea.  In 
1859,  when  there  was  a  dispute  between  Austria  and 
Sardinia,  France  made  war  upon  Austria,  and  it  was 
given  out  that  France  would  free  Italy  from  the  Alps 
to  the  Hadriatic.  But,  when  the  French  armies  reached 
the  strong  fortress  of  Verona,  all  that  was  done  was  to 
make  a  peace  with  Austria,  by  which  Italy  was  freed 
only  as  far  as  the  Mincio.  At  the  same  time,  the  two 
provinces  of  Nizza  and  Savoy,  the  remaining  Burgun- 
dian  possessions  of  the  King  of  Sardinia,  were  given  to 
France.  This  new  possession  took  in  the  districts 
whose  neutrality  had  been  guaranteed,  and  which, 
according  to  old  treaties,  if  they  ever  passed  from 
Sardinia,  were  to  pass  to  Switzerland.  Lastly,  in  1870 
France  declared  war  upon  Prussia,  the  reason  given 
being  that  there  had  been  talk  of  giving  the  Crown  of 
Spain  to  a  distant  kinsman  of  the  King  of  Prussia. 
But  Prussia  was  supported  by  all  Germany.  The 
French  crossed  the  German  frontier,  but  they  were 
driven  out  in  a  few  days,  and  then  the  German  armies 
entered  France,  and  won  a  series  of  victories.  Buona- 
parte himself  became  a  prisoner  :  afterwards  he  went 
to  England  and  died  there.  Meanwhile  he  was 
declared  deposed,  and  a  Republic  was  again  set  up  in 
Paris.  Paris  was  besieged,  and  surrendered  to  the 
Germans,  and  a  treaty  was  made  by  which,  besides 
the  payment  of  a  large  sum  of  money,  nearly  all 
£isass,  together  with  that  part  of  Lorraine  wherr 


xvii.]  THE  UNION  OF  GERMANY.  353 

German  is  spoken,  and  also  the  strong  fortress  ot 
Melz,  were  given  back  to  Germany.  Thus  Strassburg 
and  the  other  German  places  which  had  been  gradual- 
ly taken  by  France  have  become  German  again,  and 
the  French  frontier,  which  first  reached  the  Rhine  in 
1648,  is  now  kept  quite  away  from  it.  Soon  after  the 
peace  with  Germany,  Paris  was  held  by  the  Commun- 
ists or  extreme  Republicans,  and  the  city  had  again  to 
be  besieged  and  taken  by  the  Government  of  the  new 
Republic  under  the  President  M.  Thiers,  who  was  at 
one  time  chief  minister  under  King  Louis-Philippe. 
Since  then  M.  Thiers  has  resigned,  and  the  present 
President,  Marshal  Macmahon,  was  chosen.  In  the 
year  1875  a  regular  republican  constitution  was  made ; 
but  ever  since  the  fall  of  Buonaparte  there  have 
been  different  parties  in  France,  some  wishing  to  bring 
back  his  son,  and  others  wishing  for  a  'King,  either 
Henry  the  grandson  of  Charles  the  Tenth  or  one  of 
the  princes  of  the  House  of  Orleans. 

4.  The  Union  of  Germany. — The  German 
princes,  when  they  were  set  up  again  at  the  Peace, 
mostly  forgot  their  promises  of  setting  up  constitutional 
governments  ;  still  the  national  spirit  largely  tended 
towards  progress  and  union.  And  one  great  step 
towards  it  was  taken,  as  Prussia  gradually,  from  1818 
onwards,  became  the  centre  of  a  commercial  union 
among  the  German  states,  the  members  of  which 
agreed  to  levy  no  duties  on  merchandise  passing  from 
one  state  to  another,  but  to  levy  them  only  at  the 
common  frontier.  This  union,  called  the  Zollverein, 
was  gradually  joined  by  most  of  the  German  states. 
In  1848  there  were  revolutions  over  the  most  part  of 
Europe,  and  among  them  in  Prussia,  Austria,  and 
most  of  the  German  states ;  an  attempt  was  made  at 
the  same  time  to  join  Germany  together  under  an 
Emperor  and  a  common  Parliament,  instead  of  the 
lax  Confederation  which  had  gone  on  since  1815. 
But,  before  long,  things  came  back  much  as  they  were 


354       RE  UNION  OF  GERMAN  Y  AND  1 TAL  Y.  {en  A* 

before,  till  in  1866  a  war  broke  out  between  Prussia 
and  Austria,  in  which  the  German  states  took  different 
sides.  Prussia  got  the  better  in  so  short  a  time  that 
it  has  been  called  the  Seven  Weeks'  War.  By  the 
peace  which  was  now  made  Austria  was  shut  out  from 
Germany  altogether,  the  Kingdom  of  Hanover  and 
some  smaller  states,  among  them  the  free  city  of 
Frankfurt,  were  annexed  to  Prussia,  and  the  Northern 
states  were  formed  into  the  North-German  Confeder- 
ation, under  the  presidency  of  Prussia,  with  a  common 
constitution  and  assembly.  When  France  made 
war  on  Prussia  in  1870,  the  Southern  states  took 
part  in  the  war  as  well  as  the  Northern.  They 
soon  joined  the  Confederation,  Bavaria,  the  largest  of 
them,  keeping  some  special  privileges  to  herself.  Thus 
all  Germany,  except  Austria,  Tyrol,  and  the  other 
German  dominions  of  the  House  of  Austria,  has  been 
joined  together  much  more  closely  than  it  had  ever 
been  since  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  or  indeed  since 
the  great  Interregnum.  And,  while  the  German 
siege  of  Paris  was  going  on,  King  William  of  Prussia, 
being  in  the  great  hall  of  Lewis  the  Fourteenth  at 
Versailles,  received  the  title  of  German  Emperor 
from  the  princes  and  free  cities  of  Germany.  And 
presently  the  German  lands  held  by  France  were,  as 
we  have  seen,  joined  again  to  the  new  Empire.  Of 
course,  in  the  old  use  of  words,  this  was  a  restoration, 
not  of  the  Empire,  but  of  the  Kingdom  of  Germany ; 
for  in  old  times,  as  we  know  by  this  time,  the  title  of 
Empe-ror  could  be  held  only  by  one  who  was,  or 
claimed  to  be,  sovereign  of  either  the  Old  or  the  New 
Rome.  But  now  that  several  of  the  German  princes 
are  called  Kings,  it  would  have  been  hard  to  find  a 
better  title  than  Emperor  for  the  chief  of  a  Con- 
federation which  has  Kings  among  its  members. 

5.  The  Revolutions  of  Italy. — Italy  can  hardly 
be  said  to  have  had  any  history  from  1815  to 
1848.  There  were  many  conspiracies,  and  some  in- 


xvii. J  REVOLUTIONS  OF  ITALY.  355 

surrections,  in  different  parts  of  Italy,  especially  in 
1831.  But  the  Austrian  power  was  strong  enough, 
not  only  to  hold  the  Austrian  possessions  of  Loin- 
bardy  and  Venice,  but  to  keep  the  smaller  princes  on 
their  thrones.  Meanwhile  the  movement  for  the 
liberation  and  union  of  Italy  was  growing  up  in  its 
north-western  corner.  In  1831  a  new  branch  of  the 
house  of  Savoy,  that  of  Carignano^.  succeeded  to  the 
Sardinian  crown  in  the  person  of  Charles  Albert. 
In  the  early  part  of  his  reign  he  ruled  harshly,  but  he 
was  an  enemy  of  Austria.  Then,  in  1846,  the  present 
Pope,  Pius  the  Ninth,  was  chosen,  and  for  a  while  it 
seemed  as  if  be  were  going  to  do  great  things  for 
Italian  freedom ;  so  much  so  that  his  dominions  were 
partly  occupied  by  Austria  in  1847.  In  tne  course  of 
1847  and  1848,  most  of  the  Italian  princes  gave  their 
people  constitutions.  Milan  and  Venice  rose  against 
Austria,  and  now  the  King  of  Sardinia  entered  the 
Austrian  dominions  in  Italy  at  the  head  of  an  allied 
army  from  various  parts  of  the  peninsula.  But  he 
was  finally  defeated  at  Novara  in  1849,  and  he  abdi- 
cated, and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Victor  Emmanuel 
the  Second.  Meanwhile  Venice,  which  had  again  be- 
come a  republic,  was  recovered  by  Austria.  Rome, 
whence  the  Pope  had  fled  and  where  a  republic  had 
been  set  up,  was  overcome  by  troops  sent  by  the  new 
republic  of  France,  and  the  constitutions  in  the  other 
Italian  states  were  withdrawn.  Thus,  after  1849,  Italy 
was  left  in  much  the  same  case  in  which  she  had  been 
before  the  insurrections.  The  Pope  was  maintained 
in  his  dominions  by  French  help ;  Austria  had  re- 
covered her  possessions ;  but  Sardinia  remained  a 
constitutional  and  advancing  state,  for  King  Victor 
Emmanuel  steadily  kept  his  word  to  his  people. 

6.  The  Union  of  Italy. — And  now,  after  ten 
years,  came  the  beginnings  of  the  great  movement 
which  has  at  last  made  Italy  one.  In  1859  there 
came  the  war  between  Sardinia  and  Austria,  in  which 


3  -}6       RE  UNION  OF  GERMANY  AND  ITAL  Y.   [ru  \p 

France  took  a  part :  by  the  peace  Austria  gave  up 
Lombardy,  but  kept  Vcnctia.  France  now  tried  to 
make  what  was  called  an  Italian  Confederation, 
but,  as  Austria  was  to  have  been  a  member  of  it,  it 
could  have  been  no  real  Confederation  at  all,  and 
the  Italians  settled  the  matter  themselves  by  wil- 
lingly joining  themselves  to  the  kingdom  of  Victor 
Emmanuel.  Now  it  was  that  Garibaldi,  who  had 
before  defended  Rome  against  the  French,  wonder- 
fully delivered  the  Two  Sicilies,  and  joined  them  also 
to  the  kingdom  of  Victor  Emmanuel.  The  King  of 
Sardinia  thus  had  possession  of  all  Italy,  except  the 
part  held  by  Austria,  and  Rome,  where  the  French 
still  kept  the  Pope  in  possession.  In  1861  Victor 
Emmanuel  was  made  King  of  Italy  by  the  Italian  Par- 
liament, and  in  1865  the  capital  was  removed  to 
Florence  till  Rome  could  be  had.  The  kingdom  had 
hardly  been  established  in  1861  when  Count  Cavour, 
who  had  had  the  chief  hand  in  bringing  about  the  new 
state  of  things,  died.  When  the  war  broke  out  in  1866 
between  Prussia  and  Austria,  Italy  joined  Prussia,  but 
the  Italians  were  defeated  by  the  Austrians  both  by 
sea  and  land.  But  at  the  peace,  Austria  gave  up 
Venice  and  Verona ;  but  she  kept,  not  only  the 
old  Venetian  possessions  in  Dalmatia,  but  htria, 
Aqiiileia,  and  Trent,  Italian-speaking  places  which 
formed  part  of  the  ancient  Kingdom  of  Italy. 
Lastly  when  the  war  between  France  and  Germany 
caused  the  French  troops  to  be  withdrawn  from  Rome, 
Rome  was  at  last  joined  on  to  the  Italian  kingdom, 
and  it  now  of  course  is  the  capital  of  Italy.  The 
Pope's  spiritual  position  remains  unchanged,  though 
he  is  no  longer  a  temporal  prince. 

7.  Hungary  and  Austria. — Francis  the  First  oj 
.Hungary,  who  till  1806  had  been  the  Emperor  Francis 
the  Second,  went  on  reigning  in  Hungary,  Austria,  and 
his  other  states  till  1836.  Then  came  Ferdinand  tht 
Fifih,  In  1847  and  1848  there  were  revolutions  in 


xvii.]        THE  DELIVERANCE  OF  GREECE.  351 

Austria  and  Hungary  as  well  as  elsewhere.  The 
Hungarians  stood  up  for  their  ancient  constitution 
with  certain  reforms,  and,  when  Ferdinand  abdicated, 
they  refused  to  acknowledge  Francis  Joseph,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  in  Austria,  because  the  abdication  was 
not  lawful  according  to  the  laws  of  Hungary.  After- 
wards they  set  up  a  republic  under  the  famous  Kossuth. 
But  feuds  had  unluckily  arisen  between  the  Magyars 
and  the  other  races  in  Hungary,  and  this  greatly  helped 
the  reconquest  of  the  country  by  Austria,  which  how- 
ever was  not  done  without  the  help  of  Russia.  Hun- 
gary now  remained  crushed  till  after  the  war  between 
Austria  and  Prussia.  Then  the  government  was  put 
on  a  better  and  more  lawful  footing ;  Austria  and 
Hungary  became  two  distinct  states  under  a  common 
sovereign,  and  Francis  Joseph  was  lawfully  crowned 
King  of  Hungary  in  1867.  Since  then  Hungary  and 
Austria  have  agreed  well  together ;  but  difficulties 
have  arisen  through  the  other  states,  Bohemia  and  the 
rest,  asking  for  more  or  less  distinct  governments. 
The  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy,  as  it  is  called,  is 
in  fact  a  mere  joining  together  of  various  nations  with- 
out any  natural  connexion ;  but  this  is  the  general 
character  of  South-Eastern  Europe,  and  Hungary 
seems  marked  out  to  be  the  leading  state  among 
the  Christian  nations  in  those  parts. 

8-.  The  Deliverance  of  Greece. — We  have 
seen  that  the  Ottoman  power  had  been  growing  weaker 
and  weaker,  while  the  subject  Christian  races  were 
growing  stronger.  Servia  had  won  back  her  freedom, 
and  Montenegro  had  never  lost  hers.  In  182 1  the  Greeks 
revolted.  The  War  of  Independence  began,  strangely 
enough,  in  the  Danubian  Principalities  of  Wallachia 
and  Moldavia,  but  presently  the  Greeks  revolted  iu. 
all  parts  of  the  Ottoman  dominions  where  they  were 
strong  enough.  In  some  parts  they  were  put  down 
with  cruel  massacres,  but  in  the  greater  part  of  old 
Greece  the  inhabitants,  Greek  and  Albanian,  with 


358      REUNION  OF  GERMAN  Y  AND  ITAL  Y.  [CHAP. 

some  little  help  from  the  other  subject  races  and  rnnch 
more  from  volunteers  from  Western  Europe,  were  able 
to  hold  their  ground  against  the  Turks.  But  in  1826 
Sultan  Mahmoud  called  in  the  help  of  the  Pasha  of 
Egypt,  Mahomet  All,  who  had  a  be"er  disciplined 
army  than  his  own.  His  son  Ibrahim — that  is  Abra- 
ham— brought  the  Greeks  almost  to  destruction,  and 
I'eloponnesos  might  have  been  altogether  wasted  had 
not  the  three  powers,  England,  France,  and  Russia, 
stepped  in  and  crushed  the  Ottoman  fleet  at  Natwrino, 
the  old  Pylos,  in  1827.  The  French  troops  afterwards 
drove  the  Egyptians  out  of  Peloponne"sos.  The  end 
of  this  was  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  Greece. 
It  has  had  two  Kings,  Otho  of  Bavaria,  who  was  turned 
out  in  1862,  and  the  present  King,  George  of  Denmark. 
The  kingdom  has  also  been  increased  by  England,  in 
1864,  giving  up  the  protectorate  of  the.  Ionian  Islands, 
which  became  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Greece.  But 
the  new  state  has  not  been  so  prosperous  or  well 
governed  as  it  was  once  hoped  that  it  might  have  been. 
It  has  been  cooped  up  within  a  bad  frontier,  and 
moreover  the  Greeks  have  had  their  heads  too  full  of 
the  memories  of  the  old  times,  and  they  have  been 
too  fond  of  copying  the  institutions  of  Western  coun- 
tries which  are  not  suited  to  them. 

9.  Turkey  and  Russia. — Meanwhile  great 
changes  went  on  in  the  Ottoman  dominions  them- 
selves, and  the  Turks  had  several  wars  with  Russia 
and  other  powers.  In  1826  Sultan  Mahmoud  de- 
stroyed the  Janissaries,  who  had  now  become  a  tur- 
bulent and  useless  body.  Jn  1828  a  war  with  Russia 
followed.  The  next  year  the  Russians  got  as  far  as 
Hadrianople,  and  a  treaty  was  made  by  which  Russia 
gained  some  advantages  at  the  mouth  of  the  Danube 
and  made  some  stipulations  on  behalf  of  the  Christiana 
in  Turkey.  Then  followed  wars  with  Mahomet  AJt\ 
the  Pasha  of  Egypt,  in  which  several  of  the  European 
powers  took  part,  and  which  were  ended  in  1 84 1  by  Egypl 


XVir.]  RUSSIA  AND  POLAND.  y& 

becoming  a  nearly  independent  state,  though  under 
the  superiority  of  the  Porte.  Lastly  came  the  wai 
with  Russia  in  1854,  in  which  France,  England,  and 
Sardinia  took  part  on  the  Turkish  side.  It  ended 
in  1856  by  Russia  agreeing  to  certain  terms  which 
lessened  her  power  in  the  Euxine  and  giving  up  a 
small  territory,  which  kept  her  away  from  the  Danube, 
much  as  France  has  since  been  kept  away  from  the 
Rhine.  Meanwhile,  as  Greece  has  been  altogether 
cut  off  from  the  Ottoman  dominions,  and  as  Servia 
and  Egypt  had  been  made  practically  independent,  so 
also  the  Principalities  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  de- 
pendent states  whose  position  was  very  anomalous, 
and  which  formed  a  constant  excuse  for  disputes  be- 
tween Russia  and  Turkey,  have  been  formed  into  a 
separate  principality,  whose  connexion  with  Turkey  is 
purely  nominal.  But  the  Roumans,  like  the  Greeks, 
have  been  too  fond  of  imitating  Western  forms  of 
government  for  which  they  are  not  fit. 

10.  Russia  and  Poland. — We  have  seen  that, 
by  the  Peace  of  1815,  Poland,  in  the  latest  sense  ol 
the  word,  became  a  separate  constitutional  kingdom, 
to  be  held  by  the  Russian  Emperor.  Such  a  state  o< 
things  may  last  between  two  constitutional  kingdoms 
like  Sweden  and  Norway,  where,  though  Sweden  is 
the  greater,  it  is  not  so  very  much  greater  ;  but  it  could 
not  last  between  a  huge  despotic  empire  and  a  small 
constitutional  kingdom.  Disputes  therefore  naturally 
arose,  especially  after  the  accession  of  Nicholas  in 
1825  ;  the  constitution  was  not  carried  out ;  so  in 
1831  the  Poles  revolted,  declared  the  throne  vacant, 
and  held  out  for  several  months  against  the  Russian 
power.  But  they  were  crushed  and  very  harshty  treated, 
and  the  Polish  constitution  was  taken  away.  The 
wars  between  Russia  and  Turkey  have  been  already 
spoken  of;  during  the  great  war  with  France  and  Eng- 
land, Nicholas  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  present 
Emperor  Alexander  the  Second.  In  his  time  the  set/1 


}6o      RR  UNION  OF  GF.RMA NY  AND  TTA L  Y.   [CHAP 

have  been  set  free,  but  in  1863  another  Polish  revolt 
was  put  down  as  harshly  as  the  other,  and  the  Polish 
kingdom  has  been  quite  swept  away.  In  1846  too 
the  commonwealth  of  Cracow,  which  still  went  on  as 
a  kind  of  representative  of  Poland,  was  added  to  the 
Austrian  dominions. 

u.  Spain  and  Portugal. — In  Spain  Ferdinand 
the  Seventh  came  back  and  refused  to  abide  by  the 
constitution  which  had  been  set  up  during  the  wai 
with  Buonaparte.  Several  risings  on  its  behalf  took 
place,  and,  in  1820,  it  was  restored.  A  civil  war  fol- 
lowed, and  in  1822  French  troops  entered  Spain  to 
restore  the  King's  authority.  This  was  done,  but  not 
till  after  much  fighting,  and  the  French  did  not  leave 
Spain  for  seven  years.  In  1833  Ferdinand  died. 
The  Spanish  law  as  to  the  succession  of  females  had 
been  altered  backwards  and  fonvards  several  times,  so 
on  Ferdinand's  death  there  was  a  civil  war  between 
the  partisans  of  his  daughter  Isabel  and  those  of  his 
brother  Charles  or  Don  Carlos.  The  Carlist  party  was 
strong  only  in  the  Basque  provinces  in  the  North, 
but  the  war  went  on  a  long  time,  and  was  not  fully  put 
an  end  to  till  1840.  Spain  was  now  ruled  as  a  consti- 
tutional state,  but  it  has  been  constantly  disturbed  by 
insurrections  of  the  army,  and  at  last  the  misgovern- 
ment  and  bad  life  of  the  Queen  caused  her  to  be 
deposed  in  1868,  like  Mary  Stuart  in  Scotland. 
Spain  now  remained  for  some  time  without  a  King  or 
a  settled  government  of  any  kind ;  several  candidates 
for  the  crown  were  proposed,  and  some  wished  for  a 
commonwealth.  At  last,  in  1870,  a  son  of  the  King 
of  Italy,  Amadeus  Dukz  of  Aosta,  was  chosen  King. 
Presently  he  abdicated,  and,  after  another  time  of 
confusion,  the  son  of  Isabel  was  brought  back  in 
1875  by  the  title  of  Alfonso  the  Twelfth,  though  in 
the  north  a  war  has  still  gone  on  with  the  partisans  of 
Don  Carlos,  a  grandson  of  the  old  Carlos.  Owing 
to  all  these  confusions,  the  position  of  Spain  has  been 


xvii.]  TtfE  NETHERLANDS.  361 

much  lower  in  Europe  than  it  was  of  old,  besides  the 
loss  of  its  American  possessions.  In  Portugal  a  con- 
stitution was  proclaimed  in  1820,  at  the  same  time  as 
in  Spain,  the  King,  John  the  Sixth,  being  in  Brazil. 
From  this  time  till  1832  there  was  a  time  of  great 
confusion  and  civil  war  between  the  absolute  party 
under  Don  Miguel  or  Michael,  the  King's  younger  son, 
and  the  constitutional  party  under  his  eldest  son  Don 
Pedro  or  Peter,  who  succeeded  in  1826  and  who 
presently  abdicated  in  favour  of  his  daughter  Maria. 
In  1828  Don  Miguel  assumed  the  crown ;  but  he  was 
at  last  driven  out,  and  the  Queen  was  acknowledged. 
The  strangest  thing  of  all  was  that  Pedro,  after  giving 
up  the  crown  himself,  acted  as  regent  for  his  young 
daughter.  Since  then  there  have  been  some  disputes 
and  risings  in  Portugal,  but  there  has  been  no  revo- 
lution or  serious  change. 

12.  The  Netherlands. — By  the  peace  of  1815 
all  the  provinces  of  the  Netherlands  had  been  made 
into  one  .kingdom,  but  as  the  Northern  and  Southern 
provinces  differed  in  religion  and  other  things,  they  did 
not  well  agree  together;    so  in   1830  the  Southern 
provinces  revolted.     Then  the  Kingdom  was  divided  : 
the  Northern  part,  which  had  been  the   United  Pro- 
vinces, went  on  as  the  Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands  in 
the   House  of   Orange ;   while  the  formerly  Spanish, 
and    afterwards    Austrian,    Netherlands    became    the 
Kingdom  of  Belgium  under  the  House  of  Coburg,  the 
first  King  being  Leopold,  who  had  been  husband  of 
the   Princess   Charlotte  of   England.      This  arrange- 
ment has  gone  on  since,  only  there  have  been  disputes 
about  the  Duchy  of  Liizelburg  or  Luxemburg,  which 
was  held  by  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  German  Confederation,  and  which  since  the 
fall  of  the  Confederation  has  been  declared  neutral. 

13.  Switzerland. — Switzerland    has  remained  a 
Federal  state  ever  since  the  Peace  in  1815,  and  since 
that  time  it  has  not  been  engaged  in  war  with  any 


362      REUNION  OF  GERMANY  AND  IT  AT.  V.   [CHA* 

other  power.  But  there  have  been  great  changes  in  its 
own  constitution,  and  at  one  time  there  was  even  a 
civil  war.  About  1831  there  were  disputes  in  most  of 
the  Cantons,  which  ended  in  their  governments  being 
made  much  more  popular,  but  nothing  was  done  to 
the  Federal  Constitution.  In  1847  a  war  broke  out 
between  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  Cantons,  in  which 
the  Protestants  had  the  better.  It  was  now  seen  that 
the  tie  between  the  Cantons  needed  to  be  made  much 
stronger,  and  in  1848  a  new  Federal  Constitution  was 
made,  in  many  things  very  like  that  of  the  United 
States,  only,  instead  of  a  single  President,  there  is  a 
Council  of  Seven,  with  much  smaller  powers.  Further 
changes  were  made  in  1874,  by  which  many  of  their 
powers  were  taken  away  from  the  several  Cantons  and 
given  to  the  Federal  body. 

14.  Denmark  and  the  Duchies. — Denmark 
remained  an  absolute  monarchy  till  the  accession  of 
Frederick  the  Seventh  in  1848,  who  at  once  gave  his 
people  a  constitution.  Since  then  there  have  been 
endless  disputes  about  the  two  Duchies  held  by  the 
Danish  Kings,  of  which  Holstein  undoubtedly  was 
part  of  Germany,  while  Sleswick  was  not  a  member 
of  the  German  Confederation,  and  its  people  were 
partly  German  and  partly  Danish.  A  war  went  on 
Irom  1841  to  1851,  but  this  time  Denmark  kept 
both  Duchies.  But  in  1864,  under  the  present  King 
Christian  the  Ninth,  disputes  arose  again  ;  a  war  fol- 
lowed, and  the  Duchies  were  given  up  by  Denmark  to 
Prussia  and  Austria,  and  again  in  1866  by  Austria  to 
Prussia  alone.  The  northern  or  Danish  part  of  Sles- 
wick v-'as  to  have  been  given  back  to  Denmark,  but 
this  has  not  yet  been  done. 

15.  Sweden  and  Norway. — At  last  we  come  to 
those  countries  in  which  during  all  these  years  there 
has  been  no  revolution  or  great  disturbance.  One 
is  Great  Britain ;  the  other  is  the  two  Scandinavian 
kingdoms  of  Sweden  and  Norway.  Bernadotte,  who 


xvii.]        GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND.  36 

had  been  already  chosen  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden, 
succeeded  to  both  kingdoms  as  Charles  the  Fourteenth^ 
and  the  two  crowns  have  since  stayed  in  his  family. 
On  the  whole  the  two  kingdoms  have  gone  on  well 
side  by  side,  having  the  same  king,  but  each  keeping 
its  own  constitution.  A  wish  has  sometime-s  been 
shown  to  encroach  on  the  independence  of  Norway, 
but  the  Northmen  have  always  been  able  to  hold 
their  own.  During  the  reign  of  the  late  King  Charle* 
the- Fifteenth,  improvements  were  made  in  the  Swedish 
constitution  also,  and  greater  liberty  was  given  to 
people  of  other  religions  than  the  Lutheran. 

16.  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. — No  time  has 
been  more  important  in  English  history  than  this  last 
time  of  which  we  are  now  speaking,  but  its  events  have 
been  mainly  of  a  kind  which  will  be  best  spoken  of  in 
a  separate  History  of  England.  It  has  been  a  time  ol 
great  advancement  in  every  way,  both  politically  and 
socially,  and  it  "has  also  been  a  time  of  many  inven- 
tions and  of  great  progress  in  men's  minds.  England 
has  also  had  something  to  do  in  some  way  or  another 
with  most  of  the  affairs  of  the  continent  of  Europe, 
but  she  has  been  engaged  in  only  one  great  war, 
namely  that  with  .Russia  from  1854  to  1856.  Nor  has 
she  gained  or  lost  any  European  territory,  unless  we 
reckon  it  a  loss  that  she  has  withdrawn  from  the  pro- 
tectorate of  the  Ionian  Islands.  But  this  time  has 
been  a  time  of  great  changes  and  great  advance  rn 
the  British  possessions  in  distant  countries.  The 
trade  in  negro  slaves  was  finally  forbidden  in  1807,  and 
slavery  itself  was  abolished  throughout  the  British 
dominions  in  1833.  The  colonial  dominions  of  Eng- 
land have  vastly  extended  themselves,  especially  in 
Australia  and  North  America.  And  most  of  them 
have  received  constitutions  which  have  made  them 
altogether  independent  in  their  internal  affairs.  In 
Canada  alone  has  there  been  any  serious  disturbance. 
There  was  a  rebellion  in  1837  among  the  French 


364       REUNION  OF  GERMANY  AND  ITAL  Y.   [CHAP 

Canadians,  but  the  colony  has  since  been  made 
almost  independent,  and  it  is  now  highly  prosperous. 
In  India  we  have  had  to  wage  several  wars,  and 
several  provinces  have  been  annexed.  Here  the 
British  dominion  was  altogether  shaken  for  a  time  by 
the  Mutiny  of  the  native  soldiers  in  1857.  After  its 
suppression,  the  government  of  India  was  taken  from 
the  Company  and  given  to  the  Crown,  and  the  phan- 
tom of  the  Great  Mogul  came  at  last  to  an  end,  as 
the  last  nominal  Emperor  had  been  concerned  in  the 
mutiny.  There  have  also  been  wars  with  China, 
Persia,  Abyssinia,  and  the  Ashantees  in  Africa ;  and 
generally  England  ha's  come  more  and  more  to  the 
position  of  an  insular  power,  withdrawing  from  any 
great  interference  with  the  affairs  of  the  continent  of 
Europe,  but  keeping  up  trade  and  colonization  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  and  being  therefore  ever  and  anon 
engaged  in  distant  wars.  The  whole  island  of  Great 
Britain  has  long  been  firmly  joined  together,  notwith- 
standing the  differences  of  race  and  speech  in  different 
parts  which  have  still  not  wholly  died  out.  But  the 
remembrance  of  ancient  misgovernment  has  constantly 
kept  up  the  spirit  of  disaffection  in  Ireland,  which  has 
broken  out  into  more  than  one  conspiracy  and  rising, 
though  none  on  any  great  scale.  Every  care  has  been 
taken  by  a  succession  of  measures  to  do  justice  to 
Ireland,  by  the  admission  of  the  Roman  Catholics  to 
equal  rights  with  Protestants,  by  the  disestablishment 
of  the  dominant  Protestant  Church,  and  by  laws  for 
the  benefit  of  the  occupiers  of  land.  But  it  would  seem 
that  the  memory  of  old  wrongs  is  even  now  stronger 
\han  the  feeling  of  recent  benefits. 

17.  The  Spanish  Colonies  in  America. — If 
this  period  has  been  one  of  great  change  in  the  Old 
World,  it  has  been  one  of  equal  change  in  the  New 
The  example  of  the  British  colonies,  which  have 
given  birth  to  the  great  commonwealth  of  the  United 
States,  has  been  followed  by  the  Spanish  Colonies  also 


CHAP.  xvn.J  SPANISH  AMERICA.  365 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  there  is  this  great 
difference  between  the  Spanish  and  the  English. 
colonies,  that,  though  in  the  United  States  the  people 
are  not  of  purely  English  blood,  yet  the  mixture  has 
been  with  other  European  nations,  or  with  slaves 
brought  from  Africa,  and  not  at  all  with  the  natives 
of  America.  But  in  the  Spanish  settlements  the 
Europeans  and  the  natives  have  been  largely  mixed, 
and  in  truth  the  native  blood  prevails.  When  the 
national  government  in  Spain  was  upset  by  Buona- 
parte, the  Spanish  colonies  began  to  set  up  for  them- 
selves in  1810.  Mexico  was  recovered,  but  it  revolted 
again  in  1820.  A  certain  Iturbide  for  a  while  called 
himself  Emperor,  as  people  did  in  other  places,  but 
after  a  while  a  Federal  Commonwealth  was  estab- 
lished. But  the  country  has  never  been  quiet  for  any 
long  time,  and  it  has  lost  the  great  province  of  Texas 
to  the  United  States.  In  1862  a  quarrel  arose  with 
England,  France,  and  Spain;  from  this  England  and 
Spain  soon  withdrew,  but  France  went  on,  and  in  1863 
the  Austrian  Archduke  Maximilian  was  set  up  under 
French  influence  as  yet  another  Emperor;  but  he  was 
not  acknowledged  by  the  whole  country,  and  in  1867 
he  was  overthrown  and  shot  by  the  native  President 
fuarez.  Chili  also  separated  from  the  Spanish 
dominion  in  1810,  and  Peru  in  1820,  and  now  Spain 
has  no  dominions  on  the  continent  of  America;  and  in 
the  Spanish  island  of  Cuba  there  have  been  endless 
disturbances. 

1 8.  Brazil. — The  great  Portuguese  settlement  in 
South  America  has  had  a  somewhat  different  history 
from  either  the  English  or  the  Spanish  colonies.  It 
separated  from  the  mother-country,  but  it  is  the  only 
state  in  the  New  World  which,  instead  of  becoming  a 
republic,  has  remained  under  a  prince  of  the  old  royal 
family.  YJ&gJohn  tfie  Sixth,  as  we  have  seen,  reigned 
in  Brazil  when  he  had  to  leave  Portugal,  and  he 
called  himself  King  of  Brazil  as  well  as  of  Portugal 


J66       REUNION'  OF  GERMANY  AMD  ITALY.    [cHAf 

In  1822  Brazil  was  declared  independent  with  a  free 
constitution,  under  Dom  Pedro  as  Emperor.  The 
crowns  of  Brazil  and  Portugal  have  since  remained 
distinct,  as  on  Pedro's  abdication  he  was  succeeded 
by  his  daughter  Maria  in  Portugal,  and  by  his  son 
Pedro  in  Brazil.  Brazil  has  had  fewer  disturbances, 
and  has  been  more  prosperous,  than  any  other  South 
American  state. 

19.  The  United  States. — But  neither  in  the  Old 
nor  the  New  World  has  this  period  made  more  im- 
portant changes  than  it  has  in  the  commonwealth  of 
the   United  States.       Many   new   States    have  been 
founded  towards  the  West,  and  the  great  dominion  of 
Texas,  which  had  been  part  of  Mexico,  first  became 
a  separate  commonwealth,  and  was  afterwards  joined 
on  to  the  Union.    But  the  greatest  event  in  the  history 
of  America  has  been  the  war  which  began  in   1861 
between   the  Northern  and  Southern  States.      There 
were  many  causes  of   difference  between  them,  the 
chief  being  the  allowance  of  slavery  in  the  South, 
while  it  had  long  died  out  in  the  North.     On  the  elec- 
tion of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  President,  in  1860,  South 
Carolina  seceded  from  the  Union,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Southern  States  presently  followed  her.     They  caller! 
themselves  the  Confederate  States,  and  set  up  a  Fede- 
ral constitution,  nearly  the  same  as  that  of  the  United 
States,   under  Jefferson  Davis   as  President.      Then 
followed  the  war  which  lasted  till   1865,  when  the 
Confederate  States  had  to  submit     About  the  same 
time    President    Lincoln,    having    just   been   chosen 
President  a  second  time,  was  murdered.     The  result 
of  the  war  has  been  the  reconstitution  of  the  Union, 
and   the  final  getting  rid  of   slavery  throughout  all 
parts  of   the   North  American  continent.      In    Brazi/ 
and  in  the  Spanish  and  Dutch  colonies  it  still  goes 
on,  but  in  Brazil  it  will  come  to  an  end  before  many 
years. 

20.  Summary. — Thus,  in  our  own  days,  France  hai 


xvn.]  SUMMARY.  367 

again,  for  the  third  time,  tried  to  get  the  chief  power  in 
Europe,  and  a  third  time  she  has  been  beaten  back, 
and  has  been  driven  to  give  up  part  of  her  former 
conquests.  The  rest  of  Europe  has  been  completely 
changed  by  the  union  of  Italy  into  one  kingdom,  and 
by  the  union,  though  less  close,  of  nearly  all  Germany 
under  the  leadership  of  Prussia.  Austria  has  with- 
drawn from  both  German  and  Italian  affairs,  and  has 
become  a  state  joined  with  Hungary,  something  in  the 
same  way  as  Sweden  and  Norway.  The  last  traces  of 
Polish  independence  have  been  trampled  out,  and 
Denmark  has  been  cut  short  by  the  complete  loss  of  the 
Duchies.  Two  new  kingdoms  have  arisen,  namely 
Belgium  and  Greece,  of  which  the  former  has  pros- 
pered much  more  than  the  latter.  The  whole  East 
of  Europe  has  during  the  whole  time  been  more  or 
less  unsettled,  as  it  doubtless  always  will  be,  as  long 
as  a  Mahometan  power  rules  over  Christians.  On 
the  whole  Europe  has  greatly  gained  in  freedom  and 
good  government  since  the  end  of  the  wars  of  the 
French  Revolution.  But  on  the  other  hand,  the  keep- 
ing up  of  vast  standing  armies  by  nearly  all  the  govern- 
ments of  the  continent  makes  peace  at  all  times  un- 
certain, and  the  tendency  of  later  times  has  been  to 
lessen  the  importance  of  the  smaller  states  and  to 
group  Europe  under  a  few  great  powers.  Still,  both 
in  Great  Britain,  in  most  other  parts  of  Europe,  and 
in  the  United  States,  men  may  be  very  glad  that  they 
live  in  our  own  day  and  not  in  any  of  the  times  which 
have  gone  before  us. 


INDEX. 


Aachen  ;  French  annexation  of,  334 

Abbas,  forefather  of  the  dynasty  of 
the  Abbassides,  125 

Abbassides,  dynasty  of,  overthrow  the 
Ommiads,  125  ;  end  of,  197 

Abdal-rahman  founds  the  Ommiad  dy- 
nasty at  Cordova,  126 

Abd-al-rahman  III.,  Caliph,  greatness 
of  the  Mahometan  power  in  Spain 
under,  154 

Abu-Bekr,  first  Caliph,  117,  119 ;  his 
wars  with  the  Empire,  117 

Abyssinian  war,  the,  364 

Acadie,  French  colony  of,  acquired  by 
Britain,  301.  See  Nova  Scotia. 

Achaia,  later  importance  of,  44  ;  begin- 
ning of  the  League  of,  45  ;  extension 
of,  ib.  ;  war  of,  with  Sparta,  46 ; 
helped  by  Antigonps  Doson,  ib.  •  re- 
signs Corinth  to  him,  ib.  ;  in  alliance 
with  Philip,  ib.  ;  helps  him  against 
Rome,  64  ;  becomes  the  ally  of  Rome, 
ib.  ;  extension  of  the  League,  65  ;  war 
with  Rome,  ib.  ;  dissolution  of  the 
League,  66  ;  Principality  of,  190 

Act  of  Mediation,  339 

Acre  taken  by  the  Mahometans,  188 

Adolf  of  Nassau,  King,  20 

Aetius,  Roman  general,  commands  at 
Chalons,  102 

Alfred,  see  Alfred 

/'Eneas,  53 

/Eneas  Silvius,  see  Pius  II. 

•/Equians,  their  wars  with  Rome,  56 

/Esohylus,  34 

yEthelberht,  King  of  Kent,  Brctwalda, 
133  ;  converted  by  Augustine,  ib. 

^Ethelred  the  Unready,  Danish  inva- 
sions of  England  in  his  reign,  144 ; 
driven  put  by  Swegen,  ib. 

/Etolia,  rise  of  its  people,  42  :  League 
of,  45  ;  war  with  the  Achaians  and 
Macedonians,  46  ;  alliance  with 
Rome,  64  ;  Roman  conquest  of,  65 


Africa,  its  geographic..!  character,  10: 
Roman  province  of,  63 ;  settlement 
of  the  Vandals,  104  ;  recovered  to  the 
Empire  by  Belisarius,  114  ;  Saracen 
conquest  of,  1 18 

Agathokles,  Tyrant  of  Syracuse,  59 
Agesilaos,    King  of  Sparta,   his   cam- 
paigns in  Asia,  36  ;  returns  to  Greece, 

Agincourt,  battle  of,  217 

Agis,  King  of  Sparta,  attempts  to  throw 

off  the  Macedonian  yoke,  42 
Agricola,  his  conquest  of  Britain,  87 
Agrippina,  wife  of  Germanicus,  death  of, 

8S. 

Agrippina,  wife  of  Claudius,  poisons 
him,  85 

Aigos-potamos,  defeat  of  the  Athenians 
at,  35 

Aix.  see  Aquae  Sextiae 

Akarnania,  League  of,  46  ;  helps  Philip 
against  Rome.  64 

Akbar,  Mogul  Emperor,  298 

Aktion,  battle  of,  79 

Alarcos,  battle  of,  195 

Alaric,  King  of  the  West-Goths,  takes 
Rome,  101 

Alberoni,  Cardinal,  minister  of  Philip 
V.  of  Spain,  305 

Albert  I.,  King,  son  of  Rudolf  of  Haps- 
burg,  grant  of  Austria  to,  202;  mur- 
der of,  ib. 

Albert  II.,  King,  204 

Albert  of  Brandenburg,  Duke  of  Prus- 
sia, 366 

Albigenses,  crusades  against,  191,   192 

Alexander  the  Great  succeeds  Philip, 
39  ;  takes  and  destroys  Thebes,  ib.  \ 
his  victories  at  the  Granikos,  Issos, 
and  Arbela,  40  ;  takes  Tyre,  ib.  ;  con- 
quers Egypt  and  founds  Alexandria, 
ib.  ;  death  of,  ib.  ;  effects  of  his  con- 
quests, ib. 

Alexander  Severus,  Emperor,  takes  the 
name  ot  Antonnius,  89  ;  his  wars  witt 
Persia,  90 


370 


INDEX. 


AJe*and<;r   I     of  Russia,    his   relations 

with  Buonaparte,  352 
A.exander  II.  of  Russia,   abolition   of 

serfage  under,  359 
Alexander  II.,  Pope,  sanctions  Norman 

invasion  of  England,  151 
Alexander    V.,    Pope,    chosen    by  the 

Council  of  Pisa,  207 
Alexander  VI.,  Pope,  249 
Alexander   Farnese,    Duke  of  Parma. 

258 
Alexandria,  foundation  of,  40;  becomes 

the  seat  of  Greek  learning,  71 
Alexios  Angelos,  restored  to  the  Eastern 

Empira  by  the  Crusaders,  189 
Alexios  Komnenos,  Eastern    Emperor, 

156 
Alfonso  of  Aragon  recovers  Zaragoza, 

154  ;  growth  of  the  kingdom  under, 

it. 

Aifonso  V.  of  Aragon,  228 
Alfonso  VI.  of  Castile,  union  of  Leon 

and  Castile  under,  154;  recovers  To- 
ledo, it. 
Alfonso  VII.  of  Castile  takes  the  title  of 

Emperor,  105 ;  his  wars  with  the  Al- 

mohades,  to. 
Alfonso  VIII.  of  Castile  defeated  by  the 

Caliph  Jacob  at  Alarcps,  195 
A'fonso  X.  of  Castile,  his  election  to  the 

Empire,  201 

Alfonso  XII.  of  Spain.  360 
Alfred,  King  of  the  West-Saxons,  his 

wars  with  the  Danes,  135  ;  his  treaty 

with  On  thrum,  136 
Algiers,  French  conquest  of,  351 
Ah,  Caliph,  125 
Ali  Pasha  of  Joannina,  344 
Ali    Kaycm,    Caliph   of  Bagdad,    asks 

help  of  Togrel  lieg,  156 
Allia,  Gauls  defeat  the  Romans  at  the, 

515  . 

Allodial  tenure,  origin  and  nature  of, 
165 

Almohades,  growth  and  decline  of  their 
power  in  Spain,  195 

Almoravides,  dynasty  of  in   Spain,  154 

Alp  Arslan,  Sultan,  defeats  the  Emperor 
Romanes  at  Manzikert  156 

Alphabet,  originally  Phoenician,  23 

Alsace,  see  Elsass 

Alva,  Duke  of,  his  government  in  the 
Netherlands,  257 

Amadous,  Duke  of  Aosta,  chosen  King 
of  Spain,  360 ;  abdicates,  ib. 

Ambrose,  Saint,  Archbishop  of  Milan, 
submission  of  Theodosius  to,  101 

America,  discovery  of,  275  ;  origin  of  its 
name.  ib.  :  Spanish  settlements  in, 
a/6  :  French,  English  and  Dutch  set- 
tlements in,  277,  178,  300  ;  American 


Wir  of  Independence,  310  ;  revolts  oi 

the  Spanish  colonies,  365 
Amerigo  Vespucci  gives  his  name  to  th« 

new  world,  275 
Amiens,  Peace  of,  330,  340 
Amphiktionic  Council,  39  ;  Philip  made 

member  of,  ib. 
Amurath  I.,  Sultan,  takes  Hadrianople, 

225 

Amurath  II.,  Sultan,  union  of  th-  Otto- 
man monarchy  under,  226  ;  besiege* 

Constantinople,  it.  ;  defeats  Wladi*- 

laus  of  Poland,  231 
Anabaptists,    revolts    of,  in    Germany 

251 
Andiiskas   heads    the   Macedonian   r« 

volt  against  Rome,  65  ;  defeat  of,  ib. 
Angevin  dynasty  in  England,  153 
Angles,  a  Low-Dutch  tribe,  109 ;  give 

their  name  to  England,  it. 
Angora,  battle  of,  226 
Anne,  Empress  of  Russia,  316 
Anne,    Queen    of   England,    union    of 

England  and  Scotland  under,  289 
Anne  of  Britanny,  her  marriages,  253 
Anson,  Lord,  309 
Antalkidas,  Peace  of,  37 
Antigonos  Doson,   King  of  Macedonia, 

helps  the  Achaians,  46 
Antigonos  Gonatas,  King  of  Macedonia, 

Antioch,  its  foundation,  40 ;  capita!  o( 
the  Seleukid  kingdom,  67  ;  won  back 
to  the  Eastern  Empire,  1.13 

Antiochos  the  Great,  helps  the  /F.tn- 
lians,  65  ;  defeated  by  the  Romans  at 
Thermopylai,  ib.  ;  at  Magnesia,  66 

Autipatros,  Macedonian  general,  take* 
Athens,  42 

Antoninus,  see  Alexander  Severus 

Antoninus,  see  Caracalla 

Antoninus  Pius,  Emperor,  87 

Antonius,  Marcus,  Triumvir,  70  ;  civil 
war  of  with  Brutus  and  Cassius,  ib.  ; 
makes  war  on  the  Parthians.  ib.  ;  in- 
fluence of  Kleopatra  on,  ib.  ;  his  civil 
war  with  Czsar,  ib.  :  his  defeat  an<5 
death  of,  ib. 

Apennines,  the,  49 

ApollSn.  Philip  of  Macedonia  declare! 
himself  champion  of,  38 

Apollonia,  submission  of  to  Rome,  63 

Aquas  Sextia;,  Roman  colony  of,  69 ; 
defeat  of  the  Teutones  near,  70 

Aquitaine,  early  inhabitants  of,  69; 
part  of  the  Spanish  kingdom  of  the 
West-Goths,  103  ;  conquered  by  the 
Franks,  104 ;  Romance  speech  of, 
106  :  part  of  the  dominions  of  Chariet 
the  Great,  127  ;  duchy  of,  131 :  seized 
by  Philip  the  Fair,  215  ;  rule  of  th« 


INDEX. 


37* 


Black  Prince  in,  316 ;  French  con- 
quest of,  216,  218 

Arabs,  a  Semitic  nation,  7 ;  see  S«-ra- 
cens 

Arados,  see  Arvad 

Aragon,  kingdom  of,  its  growth,  154 ; 
House  of,  reigns  in  Sicily,  193  ;  con- 
quests of  her  kings  over  the  Mahome- 
tans, 195  ;  union  of  Sicily  with,  214, 
228  ;  relations  of,  with  Naples,  ib.  ; 
war  of,  with  Provence  and  France,  ib.\ 
union  of  Castile  with,  229,  see  Castile 
and  Aragon 

Aratos,  frees  Sikyon,  45  ;  leader  of  the 
Achaian  League,  ib. 

Arbela,  battle  of,  40 

Arcadius,  Emperor  in  the  East,  101 

Archangel,  port  of,  267,  315 

Architecture  in  the  nth  century,  152, 
158  ;  in  the  i2th  and  131)1  centuries, 
198  ;  in  the  13th,  I4th,  and  isth  cen- 
turies, 232 

Ardeshir,  see  Artnxerxes 

Argos,  its  early  greatness,  26 ;  joins  the 
Confederacy  against  Sparta,  37  ;  be- 
sieged by  Pyrrhos,  43 ;  joins  the 
Achaian  League,  45 

Aria,  see  Iran 

Aristeides  the  Just,  33 

Aristocracy,  meaning  of  the  word,  28 

Aristophanes,  comic  poet,  34 

Arkadia,  League  of,  38 

Arius,  doctrine  of,  97  ;  Teutonic  nations 
become  followers  of,  99,  100 

Aries,  see  Burgundy 

Armada,  the  Spanish,  243,  263 

Armies,  standing,  beginning  and  cause 
of.  237 

Arminius,  victory  of  over  the  Romans, 
83 

Armorica,  British  settlement  in,  127  ; 
called  Britanny,  ib. 

Arnulf,  King  of  the  East-Franks  and 
Emperor,  130 

Arpinum,  birth-place  of  Marius,  73 

Arras,  treaty  of,  222 

Arsakes,  fgui  .ds  the  kingdom  of  Parthia, 
66 

Ait,  highest  '.levelopment  of  found  in 
the  Aiyan  nations  of  Europe,  a; 
Roman,  83  ;  state  of  in  th^e  I3th,  I4th, 
and  isth  centuries,  231  ;  influence  of, 
on  modern  Europe,  2  j6 ;  in  the  i6th 
and  lyth  centuries,  278 

Artaxerxes,  King  of  Persia,  helps  the 
Athenians  against  Sparta.  37 

Artaxerxes  founds  the  Sassanid  dy- 
nasty, 90 

Arthur  of  Britanny,  son  of  Geoffrey, 
death  of,  attributed  to  John,  181 

Artois,  part  of   the  county  of,  annexed 


to  France,  243 ;  freed  from  homage, 
246 

Arts,  mechanical  state  of  among  primi- 
tive Aryans,  4 

Arvad,  a  Phoenician  city,  22 

Aryan,  use  of  the  word,  3  ;  its  orign,  8. 

Aryan  nations  of  Europe,  2,  3  ;  con- 
nexion among  their  languages,  4  ; 
early  state  of.  before  their  dispersion, 
ib.  ;  their  advances  in  religion  and 
government,  5,  6 ;  movements  of,  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  9  ;  order  of  their 
coming  into  Eifrope,  12,  16 ;  en- 
croached on  by  the  Turanians,  ib.  ', 
struggle  between  them  and  the  Tura- 
nians in  Europe,  102 

Ashanti  war,  the,  364 

Ashk,  see  Arsakes 

Asia,  south-western,  chief  seat  of  th« 
Semitic  nations,  7  ;  extent  of  the 
Turanians  in,  8 ;  Aryan  settlements 
in,  9,  20 ;  its  geographical  character, 
10 ;  Greek  colonies  in,  27,  30,  32  ; 
conquests  of  Alexander  in,  40  ;  Mace- 
donian kingdoms,  41,  64  ;  Gaulish 
settlement  in,  42  ;  first  Roman  Pro 
yince  in,  63  ;  spread  of  Mahometan- 
ism  in,  117 ;  Saracen  conquests  in. 
118  ;  extent  of  the  Eastern  Empire  in, 
under  the  Macedonian  F.mperors,  142; 
power  of  the  Seljuk  Turks  in,  155 ; 
ravages  and  conquests  of  the  Moguls 
in,  196,  197 ,  rise  of  the  Ottomans  in, 
224  ;  rise  of  Timour  in,  225  ;  Russian 
dominion  in,  274 

Asia  Minor,  Greek  colonies  in,  24,  30  ; 
Persian  dominion  in,  32  ;  submission 
of  the  Greek  cities  in.  to  Xerxes,  33  ; 
the  Persians  driven  out  of,  ib.  ;  latter 
part  of  the  Peloponnesian  war  carried 
on  in,  35  ;  campaigns  of  Agesilaos  of 
Sparta  in,  36 ;  cession  of  the  Greeks 
in  to  Persia,  37  ;  Macedonian  king- 
doms in,  41  ;  Roman  dominion  in, 
66,  67  ;  Seljuk  power  in,  156 

Assembly,  national,  common  among 
Aryan  peoples,  6,  27,  54,  71  ;  Roman, 
becomes  too  large,  72  ;  effects  of  the 
feudal  tenures  on,  166  :  nature  of  in 
France,  184,  185  ;  in  England,  185 

Astolf,  king  of  the  Lombards,  lai 

Astrakhan,  taken  by  Ivan  the  Fourth, 
267 

Athaulf,  King  of  the  West  Goths, 
begins  the  Gothic  kingdom  in  Gaul 
and  Spain,  101 

Athens,  commonwealth  of,  26 ;  tyranny 
of  Peisistratos,  20  ;  reforms  of  Solon. 
30 ;  expulsion  of  Hippias,  32  ;  heaa 
of  the  League  against  Persia,  33  ; 
greatness  of  under  Perikles,  34  ;  waY 


372 


INDEX. 


witli  Persia,  ib.-  war  with  Sparta,  ib.  ; 
expedition  to  Syracuse,  35  ;  sur- 
renders to  Lysendros,  ib.  ;  govern- 
ment and  expulsion  of  the  Thirty, 
ih.  :  second  war  with  Sparu,  37  ;  par- 
tial restoration  of  her  power,  38  ; 
war  with  Philip,  39 ;  surrenders  to 
Antipatros,  42  ;  in  alliance  with 
Rome,  84  ;  Duchy  of,  190 

Atl.ilos  the  First,  King  of  Pergamos, 
helps  Rome  against  Macedonia,  64  ; 
Attalos  the  Third,  leaves  his  king- 
d"in  to  the  Romans,  67 

Attil.i,  King  of  the  Huns,  defeated  at 
Chalons,  102 

Au_;>Uirg  Confession,  352;  Peace  of, 
If. 

Augustine,  Saint,  his  mission  to  Britain, 

'33 

Augustus,  title  of.  given  to  Roman 
Emperors,  79,  116 

Augustus  Caesar,  (Caius  Julius  C«esar 
Octavianus)  Triumvir,  79;  defeats 
Antonius  and  Kleopatra,  ib.  \  his 
special  title  of  Augustus,  ib. ;  his 
reign,  82;  literature  and  art  under, 

83 

Augustus  the  Strong,  Elector  of  Saxony 
and  King  of  Poland,  wins  back 
Kaminiec  from  the  Turks,  297 ;  his 
deposition  and  restoration,  ib.  ;  death, 
306 

Augustus  III.,  King  of  Poland,  316 

Aurelian,  Emperor,  89  ;  overthrows  the 
kingdom  of  Palmyra,  90 

Aurelius  Marcus,  Emperor,  87;  his 
wars  with  the  Germans,  88 ;  his 
writings,  ib. 

Aurungzebe.  Mogul  Emperor  in  India, 
decline  of  the  Empire  under,  299  ; 
revolt  of  the  Mahrattas>  from,  ib. 

Austerlitz,  battle  of,  334 

Australia,  beginning  of  colonization  in, 
323 ;  English  in,  344 

Austria,  origin  of  the  Duchy,  139  ;  grant 
of  to  Albert  of  Habsburg,  202  ;  many 
of  its  Dukes  chosen  Kniperors,  204 ; 
early  dealings  with  Swiss  League, 
220;  dynasty  of  "in  Spain,  242;  its 
Archdukes  Kings  of  Hungary,  268  ; 
its  power,  201  ;  rivalry  with  Prussia, 
304  ;  loss  of  Italian  dominions,  306 ; 
wars  under  Charles  the  Sixth,  305 ; 
with  Prussia,  307,  308 ;  Genoese  re- 
volt against,  314  ;  share  of,  in  the 
final  partition  of  Fwi.ind,  317  ;  wars 
with  Huonaparte,  332,  334,  336; 
dominion  of  in  Italy,  338,  355;  war 
with  France,  352 ;  with  Prussia.  354; 
final  loss  of  her  Italian  dominions, 
355,  304  ;  relations  with  Hungary,  357 


Austrian  Succession,  War  of  the,  307 

3°9 
Avars,  wars  of  the   Empire  with,  115, 

128 
Avignon,  Income  tho  seat  of  Popcdom, 

205:     seized    by    Lewis    XIV.,    285; 

French  annexation  of,  328 
Azov,  conquered  by   Peter   the  Great, 

"5 


B. 

Babcr,  his  reign  and  descendants,  298 

Babylon,  taken  by  Cyrus,  32  ;  death  ul 
Alexander  at,  40 

Babylonish  Captivity,  meaning  of  the 
name,  205 

Bagdad,  capital  of  the  Abbassides,  125  ; 
taken  by  the  Moguls,  197 

Bajazet  the  Thunderbolt,  Sultan, 
growth  of  the  Turkish  power  under, 
225  ;  defeated  by  Timour,  226 ;  de- 
feats Siegmund  at  Nikopolis,  231 

Bajazet  II.,  Sultan,  227,  267 

Baldwin,  Count  of  Flanders,  goes  on 
the  Fourth  Crusade,  189  ;  made 
Emperor  of  Constantinople,  190 

Baltic  Sea,  answers  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean in  Northern  Europe,  10 

Barbarians,  meaning  of  the  name,  25 ; 
settlements  of  within  the  Empire,  99 

Barcelona,  County  of,  131 

Bartholomew.  Saint,  massacre  of,  256 

Bise!.  Council  of,  207,  208 

liasil  I.,  Eastern  Emperor,  reign  of,  147 

Basil  II.,  Eastern  Emperor,  142:  power 
of  the  Empire  under.  143  :  overthrow* 
the  Bulgarian  kingdom,  ib. 

Basques,  remnant  of  the  non-Aryan 
people  of  Eurcpe,  8,  13 

Batavian  Republic,  339 

Batavians,  revolt  of,  against  Rome.  86 

Baton  Khan,  Mogul  invasions  of  Eu- 
rope under,  196 

Bavaria,  under  Charles  the  Great,  137; 
war  of  succession  to,  308 

Begging  Friars,  preaching  of  Wycliffe 
against,  207 

Belgium,  kingdom  of,  257,  361,  see 
Nether  lands 

Belgrade,  Mahomet  II.  repulsed  from, 
231;  taken  by  Suleiman,  268:  ceded 
to  Austria,  291;  restored  to  Turkey, 
319;  Peace  of  ib. 

Belisarius,  his  Persian  campaigns,  114; 
ends  the  Vandal  kingdom  in  Africa, 
ib.  ;  his  wars  with  the  Goths  ii 
Italy,  ib. 

Bender,  Charles  XII.   takes  shelter  at 


INDEX. 


373 


Benedict,  Sa'.nt,  founder  of  western 
monasticism,  170 

Benedict  XIII.,  Pope,  207 

Benedict  XIV.,  Pope,  315 

Beueventum.  Pyrrhos  defeated  at,  59 

Berengar,  King  of  Italy,  sufc.uts  to 
Otto  the  Great,  140 

Bern  joins  the  Confederates,  220;  fol- 
lows the  teaching  of  Zwingli,  260;  her 
alliance  with  Geneva,  ib. ;  her  con- 
quests, ib. 

Bernadotte,  chosen  Crown  Prince  of 
Sweden,  341 ;  see  Charles  XIV.  of 
Sweden 

Bernard  Saint,  preaches  the  Second 
Crusade,  186 

Bernhard  of  Weimar,  his  share  in  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  270 

Besancon,  annexed  by  l«wis  XIV.,  283 

Bithynia,  kingdom  of,  42 

Blake,  Admiral,  287 

Bceotian  League,  character  of,  44 

Bohemia,  origin  of,  127;  its  relations  to 
the  Empire,  139,  162,  163 :  Hussite 
war  in,  207;  Frederick,  Elector  Pala- 
tine, King  of,  269 

Bombay,  English  settlement  of,  299 

Boniface,  Apostle  of  Germany,  133 

Boniface,  Marquess  of  Montferrat,  goes 
on  the  Fourth  Crusade,  189 

Boniface  VIII.,  Pope,  reign  and  death 
of,  305 

Boulogne,  English  conquest  of,  254, 
262 

Bourdeaux,  rule  of  the  Black  Prince  at, 
216 

Bourses,  217 

Bouvines,  battle  of,  182 

Braganza,  Portuguese  dynasty  of,  243 

.Brandenburg,  Electorate  of,  266,  272, 
290,  see  Prussia 

J5raxil,  Portuguese  colony,  278;  its  sep- 
aration from  Portugal,  366 

Bremen,  Commonwealth  of,  174;  Bish- 
oprick  of,  annexed  to  Sweden,  271  ; 
to  Hanover,  296 

1'resse,  annexed  to  France,  261 

"Bretigny.  Peace  of.  216 

Siretiualda,  meaning  of  the  name,  133 

Britain,  its  inhabitants,  77.  108;  cam- 
paigns of  Oesar  in,  77;  Roman  con- 
quest of,  85-87  ;  Picts  and  Scots 
invade  the  Roman  province,  108;  first 
Saxon  invasion,  109 ;  Roman  troops 
withdrawn  from,  ib.  •  English  con- 
quest, ib.  ;  settlement  of  the  English 
in,  132  ;  of  the  Northmen,  134  ;  the 
English  kings  become  Lords  of,  136; 
destruction  of  Roman  towns  in,  173 

Britain,  Lesser,  see  Uritanny. 

Kriunny,    origin    of    the    name,    127 : 


Duchy  of,    annexed  to  France,  253 
popular  speech  of,  ib. 
Bruce,  Robert,    separation  of  Scotland 
from  England  under,  214 

Brutus,  Marcus  Junius.  conspires  with 
Cassius  and  kills  Caesar,  78;  defeated 
at  Philippi,  79 

Buda,  Turkish  pashilic  at,  268 

Building,  knowledge  of,  among  primi- 
tive Aryans,  4 

Bulgaria,  kingdom  of,  143  ;  conquered 
by  Basil  II.,  tb.  ;  :onverted  to  Chris 
tianity,  145  ;  revolts  against  the  Em- 
pire, 189;  conquered  by  the  Turks 
225 

Buonaparte,  Napoleon,  rise  of,  329 ;  hij 
wars  in  Italy,  ib.;  in  Switzerland  and 
Egypt.  330 ;  Consul,  ib.  ;  reigns  as 
Emperor  of  the  French  and  King  ol 
Italy,  331  ;  his  war  with  England,  ib.; 
his  dependent  kings,  332  ;  invade* 
Russia,  ib.;  general  alliance  against, 
ib.;  his  fall,  333  ;  his  return  from  Elba 
and  final  overthrow,  ib. 

Buonaparte,  Louis  Napoleon,  his  early 
career,  351  ;  chosen  President  of  tha 
Republic,  ib.  ;  reigns  as  President  for 
ten  years,  ib. ;  as  Emperor,  352  ;  his 
wars  with  Russia  and  Austria,  ib. ; 
his  dealings  with  Italy,  ib.  ;  his  war 
with  Prussia,  ib.;  his  death,  it. 

Buonaparte,  Jerome,  King  of  West- 
phalia, 335 

Buonaparte,  Joseph,  King  of  Spain,  332 

Buonaparte,  Lewis,  King  of  Holland, 
339 

Burgundians,  settlement  of,  in  Gaul,  103 

Burgundy,  County  of,  temporary  an- 
nexation of,  by  France,  218  ;  part  ol 
the  dominions  of  Charles  the  Bold, 
223  ;  of  Charles  V.,  242  ;  conquered 
by  Lewis  XIV.,  283 

Burgundy,  Duchy  of,  131  ;  beginning 
of  the  Valois  Dukes  of,  221 ;  growth 
of  their  power  within  the  Empire,  222; 
united  to  France,  223  ; 

Burgundy,  Kingdom  of,  129,  130  ;  its 
union  with  the  Empire,  147  :  relationi 
of,  with  France,  183  ;  broken  up,  201; 
the  greater  part  annexed  to  France, 

Burgundy,    various    meanings    of  th« 

name,  221 
Byzantion,  42  ;  keeps  its  independence, 

ib.;    the  capital  of  Empire  removed 

to,  96 

c. 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  discover*  the  mail 
land  of  America,  175 


374 


INDEX. 


Cadiz,  see  Gades. 

C&sar,  title  of,  79.  93 

Czsar,  Caius  Julius  Octavianas,  tee 
Augustus  C^sar. 

Oesar.  Caius  Julius,  his  birth  and  char- 
acter, 76 ;  his  conquests  in  Gaul,  il>.  ; 
his  campaigns  in  Germany  and  Bri- 
tain, 77  ;  his  civil  war  with  Pompeius, 
77,  78 ;  his  dictatorship  and  death, 
78  ;  his  writings,  84 

Caius  Caesar,  suruamed  Caligula,  Em- 
peror, 85 

Calais,  English  conquest  of,  215  ;  re- 
taken by  the  French,  254,  262 

Calcutta.  English  settlement  at,  299 ; 
taken  by  Suraj-ad-dowla,  321 

Caliph,  meaning  of  the  word,  117 

Caliphate,  Eastern,  beginning  of,  117  ; 
division  of,  119,  125  ;  decay  of,  in 
ipth  century,  156 

Caliphate,  Western,  beginning  of,  126  ; 
end  of,  154 

Calmar,  union  of,  229 

Calvin,  John,  his  German  followers.  253; 
teaching  of,  255  :  his  settlement  at 
Geneva,  261 

Cambray,  League  of,  245 

Camillus,  Marcus  Furius,  Dictator, 
takes  Veii,  56 

Canaanites,  native  name  of  the  Phce- 
nicians,  22 

Canada.  French  settlement  of,  377 ; 
English  conquest  of,  323 ;  French 
rebellion  in,  363 

Candia,  war  of,  293 

Cannie,  battle  of,  64 

Canute,  see  Cnut 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Portuguese  dis- 
cj.eryof,  228  ;  ceded  to  England,  344 

Capuoline   Hill,   Sabine   settlement  on. 

53 

^aracalla.  Emperor,  88,  89  :  extension 
of  Roman  citizenship  under,  89 

Carelia,  Russian  annexation  of,  307 

Caihst  wars  in  Spain.  360 

Carolina,  first  colonized  by  Huguenots 
277  ;  English  settlement  of,  301  ; 
South,  secession  of,  from  United 
States,  366 

Cirlowitz,  Peace  of,  291,  294 

Carthage,  Ph'unician  colony  of,  23,  59  ; 
treaty  of  Rome  with,  56  ;  extent  of 
her  power,  59  ;  difference  between 
her  warfare  and  that  of  Rome,  60  ; 
her  naval  superiority,  il>.  ;  her  wars 
with  Rome.  60-63  ;  her  fleet  defeated 
by  the  Romans.  61  ;  her  Sicilian  pos- 
•essions  ceded  to  Rome,  ib. ;  her  do- 
minion in  Spain,  62,  68  ;  becomes  de- 
pendent on  Rome,  62  ;  taken  and 
destroyed  by  younger  Scipio,  63  :  re- 


stored as  a  Roman  colony  by  Caesar, 
81  ;  capital  of  the  Vandal  kingdom  it 
Africa,  113  ;  taken  by  the  Saracen\ 
118 

Casimir  IV.  of  Poland,  annexes  West 
ern  Prussia,  230 

Cassius,  Caius,  conspires  with  Bruttit 
against  Ca;sar,  78  ;  defeated  at  1'hil- 

'Pp'i  79 

Castile,  united  with  Leon  under  Alfonso 
VI.,  154  ;  separated  from  Leon,  195  ; 
reunited,  ib.  ;  campaign  of  the  Black 
Prince  in,  227  ;  union  of,  with  Aragon, 
229 

Catalans,  revolt  of,  against  John  oi 
Aragon,  228 

Cateau-Cambresis,  Peace  of,  254 

Catharine  of  Medici,  her  influence  over 
her  sons,  255 

Catharine  I.,  Empress  of  Russia,  316 

Catharine  II.,  Empress  of  Russia,  suc- 
ceeds Peter  III.,  316;  her  conquest 
pt  Crim  Tartary  under,  ib.  ;  her  share 
in  the  partitions  of  Poland,  317  ;  death 
of,  342 

Cato.  Marcus  Porcius,  76 

Catullus,  Roman  poet,  84 

Catulus,  Caius  Lutatius,  defeats  the 
Carthaginians  by  sea,  61 

Cavaignac,  General,  administration  of, 

Cavour,  Count,  his  share  in  the  union 
of  Italy,  356 

Cayenne,  French  colony  of,  277,  351 

Celts,  the  earliest  Aryan  settlers  in 
Western  Europe,  13  ;  remains  of  their 
languages,  13,  127  ;  their  place  in 
history,  16  ;  their  settlements  in  Spain, 
68  ;  in  Britain,  108 

Ceylon,  300 ;  acquired  by  the  English, 
354 

Chaironeia,  victory  of  Philip  at,  39 ; 
victory  of  Sulla  at,  75 

Ch.ilkedon,  Persian  armies  encamp  at, 
"5 

ChalkidikS,  peninsula  of  conquered  by 
Philip,  39 

Chalons,  battle  of,  loa 

Charlemagne,  see  Charles  the  Great 

Charles  Albert,  King  of  Sardinia,  reign 
and  abdication  of,  355 

Charles,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  delivers 
Vienna  from  the  Turks,  291 

Charles  Kdward  Stuart,  (the  Young 
Pretender)  attempt  of,  310 

Charles  Emmanuel,  Duke  of  Savoy,  261 

Charles  Emmanuel  the  Third,  Duke  Ol 
Saroy  and  King  of  Sardinia,  his  ex- 
change of  kingdoms  with  Charles  VI., 
305  ;  his  share  in  the  war  <if  tte  P<£ 
ish  succession,  306 


INDEX. 


375 


Diaries  Martel  defeats  the  Saracens  at 
Tours,  119  ;  mayor  of  the  palace, 

122 

Charles  of  Anjou,  conquers  the  kingdom 
of  Sicily,  192,  193  ;  loses  the  island, 
193 

Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
his  rivalry  with  Lewis  XI.,  222  ;  his 
schemes  and  conquests,  ib.  •  his  war 
with  die  Confederates,  223  ;  death 
of,  ib. 

Charles  the  Great,  conquers  Lombardy, 
122  ;  his  titles,  ib.  ;  elected  Emperor, 
ib.  •  extent  of  his  empire,  127 ;  his 
death,  128 

f  harles  the  Bald,  King  of  the  West 
Franks  and  Emperor,  128  ;  his  king- 
dom, 129 

Charles  the  Fat,  Emperor,  union  of  the 
Frankish  kingdoms  under,  129  ;  de- 
posed, ib. 

Charles  the  Simple,  King  of  the  West 
Franks,  his  grant  to  Rolf,  137 

Charles  IV.,  Emperor,  crowned  King  of 
Burgundy,  203  ;  his  Golden  Bull,  ib. ; 
present  at  the  battle  of  Crecy,  216 

Charles  V.,  Emperor  (the  First  of 
Sp'lin),  his  pedigree,  242  ;  extent  of 
his  possessions,  ib.  ;  abdication  of, 
243  ;  overthrows  the  liberties  of  Cas- 
tile, 244  ;  his  wars  in  Italy,  246 ; 
makes  peace  with  Francis,  247  ; 
crowned  at  Bologna,  ib.  ,  his  deal- 
ings with  the  relormers,  251  ;  gives 
Malta  to  the  Knights  of  Saint  John, 
268  ;  takes  Tunis.  269 

Tiiarles  VI.,  Emperor,  291  ;  becomes 
King  of  the  Two  Sicilies,  305  ;  his 
Pragmatic  Sanction,  ib.  ;  his  wars, 
306  ;  death  of,  307 

Charles  VII.,  Emperor  (Elector  of  Ba- 
varia), disputes  the  claims  of  Maria 
Theresa,  307 ;  his  election  and  death, 
ib. 

Charles  I.  of  England,  execution  of,  264, 
287 

Charles  II.  of  England,  restoration  of, 
287;  his  intrigues  with  Lewis  XIV., 
s88  ;  joins  with  him  against  Holland, 
Hi. 

Charles  V.  of  France,  breaks  the  Peace 
of  Bretigny,  216  ;  his  title  of  Dau- 
phin, 218 

Charles  VI.  of  France,  217 

Charles  VII.  of  France,  crowned  at 
Rheims,  217  ;  murders  John  the  Fear- 
less, 222 

Charles  VIII.  of  France,  his  conquest 
and  loss  of  Italy,  244  ;  marries  Anne 
of  Britanny,  253 

Charles  IX.  of  France,  255 


Charles  X   of  France,  illega    acts  ana 

deposition  of,  350 
Charles   I.   of  Spam,   see  Char.es  V., 

Emperor 

Charles  II.  of  Spain,  part  of  his  do- 
minions claimed  by  Lewis  XIV..  283  ; 
his  alliance  with  the  United  Provinces, 
284  ;  death  of,  285 

Charles  III.  of  Spain,  King  of  ihe  Two 
Sicilies,  314 ;  rise  of  Spain  under, 
338 

Charles  IV.  of  Spain,  338  ;  aidication 
of,  ib. 

Charles  X.  of  Sweden,  295 

Charles  XI.  of  Sweden,  greatest  extent 
of  the  power  of  Sweden  under,  295  ; 
Sweden  becomes  an  absolute  monar- 
chy under,  ib. 

Charles  XII.  of  Sweden,  exploits  and 
death  of,  295  ;  abets  the  attempt  ot 
the  Old  Pretender,  309 

Charles  XIII.  of  Sweden,  341 

Charles  XIV.  of  Sweden,  363 

Charles  XV.  of  Sweden,  363 

Charlotte,  Princess  of  England,  361 

Charter,  the  Great,  wrested  from  John, 
184 

Chatham,  William  Pitt,  Earl  of.  310 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  influence  of  hii 
works  on  the  English  language,  233 

Chauvin,  see  Calvin 

Chili  separates  from  Spain,  365 

Chilperic,  King  of  the  Franks,  deposi- 
tion of,  122 

Chlodwig,  King  of  the  Franks,  103  ; 
made  Roman  Consul,  113  ;  his  de- 
scendants, 121 

Chorasmians,  Jerusalem  taken  by,  188, 

197 

Chosroes,  or  Nushirvan,  greatness  of 
Persia  under,  114 

Chosroes  II.,  his  conquests  from  th« 
Empire,  115 

Christian  I.  of  Denmark.  229 

Christian  II.,  his  reign  in  Norway,  Den- 
mark and  Sweden,  264  ;  driven  out 
of,  ib. 

Christian  IV.  of  Denmark  and  Norway, 
265  ;  his  share  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  269,  270 

Christian  IX.  of  Denmark.  362 

Christina,  Queen  of  Sweden,  annexa^ 
tions  under,  265  :  her  abdication,  205 

Christianity,  origin  of,  91,  116;  its 
growth  and  persecutions,  92  ;  its  es- 
tablishment in  the  Empire,  97  :  vari- 
ous forms  of,  98  ;  early  disputes,  97, 
98,  115  ;  conversion  of  Kuropean 
nations  to,  143,  145  ;  spread  oi,  in  th» 
xoth  century,  168 

Chrysostom,  see  John 


376 


INDEX. 


( 'hurch,  General  Councils  of,  97,  112; 
I. astern,  condition  of,  in  ;  Iconoclas- 
tic controversies  in,  121  ;  Kastern  and 
Western,  disputes  between,  141,  143  ; 
Western,  how  affected  by  the  Teu- 
tonic settlements,  160 ;  theory  of  the 
ideal  powers  of  the  Popes,  ii>.  ;  Kast- 
ern and  Western,  further  division 
between,  168,  169 ;  reconciliation  be- 
tween Eastern  and  Western,  208  ; 
changed  relations  between  the  Church 
and  the  Empire,  237  ;  Eastern,  mo- 
dern importance  of,  238,  320 

Cicero,  Marcus  Tullius,  76,  84 

Cimbri,  invade  Gaul,  70 ;  defeated  at 
Vcrcellae,  ib. 

Cimbric  Chersonesos,  see  Jutland 

Cisalpine  Republic,  337 

Cistercians,  order  of,  170 

Cities,  greatness  of,  in  Italy,  174 

Citizenship,  53,  58 

Civil  Law,  Origin  of,  87  ;  Code  of,  com- 
piled by  Justinian,  113;  study  of,  in 
Middle  Ages,  if>i,  164,  209 

Claud  ii,  Emperors  of  their  house,  84 

Claudius,  Emperor,  chosen  by  the 
army,  85 

Claudius  Gothicus.  Emperor,  89, 91  ;  his 
victory  over  the  Goths,  91 

Clement  III.  Pupe,  crowns  Henry  IV., 
Emperor,  148 

Clement  V.,  Pope,  his  subservience  to 
Philip  the  Fair,  205  ;  moves  his  Court 
lo  Avignon,  ib.  ;  joins  with  Philip  to 
destroy  the  order  of  the  Templars,  ib. 

Clement  VI.,  Pope,  deposes  Lewis  of 
liavaria,  203 

Cisalpine  Gaul,  49 ;  Roman  conquest 
of,  67,  68 

Clement  VII.,  Anti-Pope,  tee  Robert  of 
Geneva 

Clement  VII.,  Pope,  247  :  makes  peace 
with  Charles  V.,  ib.  ;  his  policy,  249 

Clement  XIV.,  Pope,  suppresses  the 
Jesuits,  315 

Clergy,  marriage  of,  forbidden  by  Gre- 
gory VII.,  249  ;  position  of,  in  Middle 
Ages,  169,  170 ;  distinction  between 
ular  and  secular,  170;  learning  in 
the  West  chiefly  in  their  hands,  171  ; 
one  of  the  three  Estates,  184 

Clennont,  Council  of,  157 

Clive,  Lord,  career  of,  321 

Clovis,  see  Chlodwig 

Cnut,  his  conquest  of  England,  144  ;  his 
northern  dominion,  ib. 

Cola  di  Rienzi,  see  Rienzi 

Colleges  founded  in  English  Universi- 
ties, 231 

Cologne,  sec  Koln 

Colonies,  Phoenician,  extent  of,  22,  23, 


63;    Geeek,   extent    of,   23,  24.    6t- 

their  relation  to  the  mother  cities,  2^ 
273  ;  their  early  prosperity,  27,  31 , 
their  difference  from  European  colo 
nies,  273,  see  European  Colonies 

Columbus,  Christopher,  his  discover* 
of  the  New  World,  275 

Commodus,  Emperor,  88 

Commons,  one  of  the  three  Estates. 
184  ;  House  of.  see  Parliament 

Commons  of  Home,  see  Plebeians 

Commonwealths,  German,  173,  174! 
Italian,  174,  209,  212 

Commune  of  Pans,  353 

Como,  oppressed  by  Milan,  177 ;  seekl 
help  of  Frederick  Barbarossa,  U>. 

Conde1,  Prince  of,  his  share  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  271 

Confederate  States  of  North  America, 

367 

Confederates,  see  Swiss  League 

Conrad  II.,  Emperor,  first  of  the  Fran 
cpnian  dynasty,  147  ;  unites  Burgundy 
with  the  Empire,  ib. 

Conrad,  son  of  Henry  IV.,  war  of, 
with  his  father,  148 

Conrad  III.,  King,  176 ;  goes  on  the 
Second  Crusade,  177,  186 ;  makes  a 
League  with  the  Emperor  Manuel, 
177 

Conrad  IV.,  King,  son  of  Frederick  II., 
>8o 

Conradin,  attempts  to  win  back  Sicily, 
19?  ;  his  defeat  and  death,  ib. 

Constance,  see  Constanz 

Constance  of  Britanny,  mother  of  Ar- 
thur, 181 

Constance,  wife  of  Henry  VI.,  Em- 
peror, 178 

Constantino  the  Great,  first  Christian 
Emperor,  94  :  union  of  the  Kinpira 
under,  ib. ;  moves  his  capital  ta 
Byzantion  or  New  Rome,  96;  i.n 
changes  in  the  government,  //'. ;  di- 
vision of  his  dominions,  16.:  his  bap- 
tism, 97  ;  calls  the  Council  of  Nikaia, 
ib. 

Constantino  Kopronymos,  Emperor, 
reign  of,  120 

Constantinc   VI.,    Emperor,  deposition 

Of,   122 

Constantine  Palaiologos,  last  Eastern 
Emperor,  his  reconciliation  with  the 
Western  Church,  226 ;  his  defence  ol 
Constantinople,  and  death,  227 

Constantinople,  becomes  the  capital  ol 
the  Empire,  96  ;  Greek  influence  in, 
ib.;  Saracen  sieges  of,  118;  Rome 
becomes  independent  of,  122;  Latia 
conquest  of,  189,  190;  won  back 
by  Michael  Palaiologos,  190;  bo 


INDEX. 


371 


sieged    by    Amurath    II.,    226 ;     by 

Mahomet,  H.,  ib.\  becomes  capital  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire,  227 

Constantius.  Emperor,  father  of  Con- 
stantino the  Great,  95 

Constantius,  Emperor,  son  of  Constan- 
tine  the  Great,  reunion  of  the  Empire 
under,  96 

Constanz,  Peace  of,  granted  by  Frede- 
rick 1.,  178  ;  Council  of,  207 

Constitution  of  England,  6,  166,  183, 
184 

Consuls,  power  of  the  Roman  Kings 
transferred  to,  55 ;  Plebeians  first 
chosen,  56 

Copenhagen,  Treaty  of,  295  ;  bombard- 
ment of,  327 

Cordova,  Ommiad  dynasty  founded  at, 
126;  seat  of  the  Western  Caliphate,  ib. 

Corfu,  Venetian  possession  of,  227,  248  ; 
attacked  by  the  Turks,  294 

Corinth,  early  foundation  of,  26  ;  joins 
the  Confederacy  against  Sparta,  37  ; 
Alexander's  synod  at,  39  ;  joins  the 
Achaian  Leugue,  44 ;  destroyed  by 
Mummius,  65 

Corsica,  its  ancient  inhabitants,  49 ; 
subject  to  Carthage,  59 ;  ceded  to 
Rome,  69 ;  its  relations  to  the  East- 
ern Empire,  114,  120 ;  revolt  of, 
against  Genoa,  312 ;  annexed  to 
France,  312,  314. 

Cortez,  Hernando,  his  conquest  of 
Mexico,  276 

Corvinus,  Matthias,  King  of  Hungary, 
231 

C'ornwali'.,  Marquess,  his  administra- 
tion in  India,  344 

Cosmo  de'  Medici,  sre  Medici 

Council,  nature  of,  among  Aryan  na- 
tions, 6,  163 

Councils  of  the  Church,  see  Church 

Courtray,  battle  of,  219 ;  why  famous, 
ib. 

Cracow,  Commonwealth  of,  343  ;  sup- 
pression of,  360 

CrassuB,  Marcus  Licinius,  defeated 
and  killed  by  the  Parthians,  75 

Crecy,  battle  of,  215 

Crete,  Saracen  conquest  of  in,  126 ;  won 
back  to  the  Eastern  Empire,  143  ; 
Venetian  possession  of,  227,  248 ; 
conquered  by  the  Turks,  293  ;  their 
conquest  of,  ib. 

Crimea,  267  ;  Russian  conquest  of,  316  ; 
war  in,  352,  359,  363 

Crossus,  King  of  Lydia,  conquers  the 
Greeks  on  the  coast  of  Asia,  32  ;  con- 
quered by  Cyrus,  ib. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  Protector,  greatness 
of  England  under,  287 


Crusade,  First,  preached  by  Peter  tin 
Hermit  and  Urban  II.,  157;  taking 
of  Jerusalem,  ib. 

Crusade,  Second,  preached  by  St.  Ber- 
nard, 1 86 

Crusade,  Third,  187 

Crusade,  Fourth,  characterof,  188,  191 ; 
taking  of  Constantinople,  189 

Crusades,  beginning  and  causes  of,  155  ; 
meaning  of  the  name,  157  ;  effects  of, 
158,  186 ;  against  the  Albigenses. 
191  ;  against  Sicily,  192  ;  in  the  nortli 
of  Europe,  193 

Cuba,  365 

Curland,  Duchy  of,  217 

Culloden,  battle  of,  310 

Cyprus,  Phoenician  settlements  in,  23  . 
Greek  settlements  in,  24,  26  ;  separata 
Empire  in,  189 ;  subject  to  Venice, 
227  ;  conquered  by  the  Turks,  248, 
269 

Cyrus,  King  of  Persia,  his  conquests  ol 
Babylon  and  Lydia,  318 ;  of  tha 
Greek  settlements  in  Asia,  ib. 

Czar,  origin  of  the  name,  276 

Czechs,  127 

Czernagora,  see  Montenegro,  343 


D. 

Dacia,  wars  of,  with  Rome,  87 ;  made 
a  province  of  by  Trajan,  88  ;  given  up 
by  Aurelian,  91  ;  Gothic  kingdom  in, 
100  ;  Romance  language  of,  107 

Damascus,  capital  of  the  Ommiads,  125 

Dandolo,  Henry,  Doge  of  Venice,  his 
share  in  the  fourth  crusade,  189 

Danes,  their  relations  with  Charles  the 
Great,  127 ;  their  ravages  and  settle- 
ments of,  134  ;  conquer  Northern 
England,  135  ;  their  wars  with  Al- 
fred, ib.\  their  settlements  in  Gau!, 
136,  137  ;  their  final  conquest  of  Eng- 
land, 144 

Dante  Alighieri,  fixes  the  standard  ol 
the  Italian  language,  172  ;  his  atti- 
tude towards  the  Empire,  209 ;  his 
birth  and  death,  212 

Danube,  Roman  boundary  crossed  by 
the  Goths,  81,  100 

Darius,  King  of  Persia,  his  expedition 
against  Athens,  32 

Da-upkin,  origin  of  the  title,  218 

David  II.,  King  of  Scots,  captive  in 
England,  216 

Davis,  Jefierson,  President  of  Confeder- 
ate States,  366 

Deccan,  the,  9 

Decius,  Emperor,  persecutions  of  ChrU 
tians  under,  yt 


373 


INDh  X. 


Delaware  Bay,  Swedish  Colony  of, 
300;  Dutch  conquest  of,  it. 

Dlmetrios  Poliorketes,  King  of  Mace- 
donia. 43 

Democracy,  meaning  of  the  word,  28 

Demosthenes,  stirs  up  the  Athenians 
against  Macedonia,  39,  42 

Denmark,  greatness  of,  163,  194  :  its 
decline  in  the  131(1  century,  229:  reign 
of  the  House  of  Oldenburg  in.  ib.;  its 
relations  with  Sleswick  and  HoUtein, 
ii>. ;  its  separation  from  Sweden,  264  ; 
accepts  the  Reformation  in,  265  ;  wars 
of,  with  Liibeck.  ib.\  cedes  Scania  to 
Sweden,  295 ;  becomes  an  absolute 
monarchy,  ib.;  Sleswick  and  Hulstem 
united  with,  32  ;  her  exchange  of 
territory  in  1814,  324  ;  becomes  a 
constitutional  state,  363  ;  loss  of  the 
Duchies,  ib. 

Dermot,  Irish  King.  185 

DC  Kuytcr,  Dutch  admiral,  287 

DC  Witts,  murdered,  295 

Dictator,  his  office  at  Rome,  extent  of 
hi-.  ["AVer,  56 

Diet,  German,  in  Middle  Ages,  167 

Dijon,  capital  of  the  Duchy  of  Bur- 
gundy, i  jt 

Diocletian,  Kmperor.  his  division  of  the 
Empire.  93  ;  hi*  abdication,  it'.;  perse- 
cution of  the  Christians  under,  94 

Dionysios,  Tyrant  of  Syracuse,  59 

Directory  in  France,  329 

Ditmarsclieu  conquered  by  Denmark, 
265 

Dominic,  Saint,  founder  of  the  Domini- 
cans, -70 

Dominicans  attacked  by  \yicldiffe,  207 

Domingo   Saint,  see  Hayti 

Doimtiau,  Emperor,  86,  87 

Dorians,  their  migration,  30 

Dmsus.  campaigns  of,  in  Germany,  83 

Dunkirk,  cession  of,  to  England.  272  ; 
sold  by  Charles  II.  to  France.  288 

Dnpleix,  governor  of  Pondicherry.  320 

Dutch,  settlements  of  High  and  Low, 
108 

Dutch  colonies  in  America,  278,  300  ;  ti 
India,  300 

E. 

Eadgyth,  tee  Edith 

Ear,  a  common  Aryan  word,   5 

East,  the,  character  of  its  history,  2,  ST  ; 

prevalence  of  Mahomctanism  in,  117 
East-Angles,  kingdom  of,  133 
Kast-Saxons,  kingdom  of,  133 
Eastern  Caliphate,  see  Caliphate,  East- 
ern 
Eastern  Omich,  see  Church 


Eastern  Empire,  separate.!  from  thf 
Western,  123,  125;  its  greatness  undei 
the  Hasiiian  dynasty,  142,  143  ;  Sla- 
vonic invasions,  ib.;  decline  of  iu 
power,  155  ;  cut  short  by  the  Seljulc 
Turks,  156 ;  its  revival  under  the 
Komnenian  dynasty,  ib.,  189  ;  be- 
comes practically  Greek,  162 ;  uncer- 
tainty of  succession  in,  168  ;  its  de- 
cline, 189  ;  its  restoration,  190  :  be- 
comes more  strictly  hereditary,  190, 
191  ;  its  advance  and  decline  in  I4th 
century,  224  ;  end  of,  227 

Eastern  Mark,  see  Austria 

East  India  Company,  its  beginning  and 
growth,  298,  299,  320 ;  its  powen 
transferred  to  the  Crown,  321,  364 

Ecgberht,  King  of  the  West  Saxons,  his 
supremacy,  135 

Edgar,  King  of  the  English,  reign  of, 
144 

Edith,  daughter  of  Edward  the  Elder, 
marries  Otto  the  Great,  144 

Edmund.  Magnificent.  King  of  the 
English,  his  wars  with  the  Danes,  136 

Edmund  Ironside.  King  of  the  English, 
Ins  wars  with  Cnut.  144 

Edmund,  son  of  Henry  III.  of  England, 
crown  of  Sicily  offered  to,  192 

Edward  the  Elder,  King  of  the  English, 
his  wars  with  the  Danes.  136  ;  receives 
the  homage  of  all  Britain,  ib. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  King  of  the  Eng- 
lish, son  of  ./Ethelred,  145  ;  his  alliance 
with  the  Emperor  Henry  II..  148; 
last  of  the  West-Saxon  dynasty,  150, 
IS' 

Edward  I.  of  England,  his  crusade, 
188  ;  his  conquest  of  Wales  and  Scot- 
land, 214 

Edward  II.  of  England.  215 

Edward  III.,  his  claim  to  the  French 
crown,  215  ;  his  alliance  with  the  Em- 
peror Lewis,  ib.  ;  gives  up  and  re- 
asserts his  claims,  216 

Edward  VI.  of  England,  262 

Edward  the  Black  Prince,  his  rule  at 
Bordeaux,  216;  restores  Peter  of  Cas- 
tile's crown,  228 

Egbert,  see  Ecgberht 

Eginhard,  his  life  of  Charles  the  Great, 
'37 

Egypt,  submits  to  Alexander  the  Great, 
40;  rule  of  the  Ptolemies  in.  41,  71  ; 
Roman  conquest  of  79  ;  Saracen  con- 
quest of,  Il8;  separate  Caliphate  in, 
156,  186;  recovered  by  Saladin,  187' 
campaign  of  Saint  Lewis  in,  188;  an- 
nexed by  Sultan  Selim.  268  ;  campaign 
of  Buonaparte  in,  330;  it  •no'ler* 
relation  to  Turkey,  358 


INDEX. 


37$ 


Eirene,  deposes  Constantino  VI.,  122 
Elagabalus,  Kmperor,  takes  the  names 

of  Aurelius  and  Antoninus,  89 
Elba,  Buonaparte  exiled  to,  333  ;  his  re- 
turn from,  ib. 
Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  wife  of  Henry  II. 

of  England,  153 

Electors  of  the  Empire,  origin  of,  167 
Elizabeth,  Empress  of  Russia,  516 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  final  set- 
tlement   of   the   Reformation    under, 
262 ;    conspiracies  against,  263  ;   her 
war  with  Philip,  ib. 
Elizabeth  of  Parma,  wife  of  Philip  V.  of 

Spain,  306 

Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  I.  of  Eng- 
land, married  to  Frederick,  Elector 
Palatine,  270 

Elsass,  French  annexations  of,  272,  275, 
312,  328 ;  given  back  to  Germany, 
353 

Kmmanuel  Filibert,  Duke  of  Savoy,  261 
Emperor-elect,  title  of,  250 
Kmpire,  Roman,  see  Roman  Empire 
Empire,  Eastern,  see  Eastern  Empire 
Empire,  Western,  see  Western  Empire 
England,  foundation  of  the  kingdom  of, 
136 ;  its  connexion  with  the  Western 
•  Empire,  144;  Danish  conquest  of,  ib. ; 
restoration  of  West  Saxon  Dynasty, 
145 ;  Norman  conquest  of,  150,  152 ; 
relations  with  France,  150,  180 ; 
growth  of  Feudal  ideas  in,  165,  166  ; 
growth  of  its  constitution,  183,  185 ; 
its  connexion  with  Ireland,  185,  i8S ; 
final  union  of  Wales  with,  214;  rela- 
tions with  Scotland  and  France,  215, 
217;  loss  of  her  possessions  in»Aqui- 
taine,  216,  217;  historians  of,  231; 
religious  and  social  movements  in, 
242  ;  decline  of  villainage  in,  ib.  ;  civil 
wars  in,  261,  264  ;  the  Reformation  in, 
232  ;  its  later  relation  and  union  with 
Scotland,  263,  264 ;  its  colonies,  277, 
278,  301,  363  ;  wars  of,  with  France, 
285,  286  ;  greatness  of,  under  the  Par- 
liament and  Protectorate,  287 ;  her* 
wars  with  the  United  Provinces,  #., 
288  ;  degradation  of,  under  Charles 
and  James,  ib.  \  effects  of  the  Revo- 
lution in,  ib.  ;  legislative  union  of 
Scotland  with,  289 ;  growth  of  her 
power  in  India,  298,  299,  321,  344  ; 
growth  of  her  maritime  power,  300 ; 
her  foreign  wars,  309,  310;  revolt  of 
her  American  colonies,  310;  her  col- 
onization in  Australia,  323,  344  ;  her 
wars  with  Napoleon  Buonaparte,  329, 
331,  340;  with  the  United  States, 
341 ;  with  Russia,  363  ;  her  later  wars, 
564  ;  her  relations  with  Ireland,  ib. 


English,  the  early  home  cf,  76,  109, 
their  conquest  of  Brirjun,  109;  m 
difference  from  other  Teutonic  settle- 
ments, 110;  keep  their  own  languag* 
and  religion,  ib.  ;  their  kingdoms  in 
Britain,  132,  133 ;  their  convers  on, 
133  ;  history  of  their  language,  152, 
232  ;  later  settlements  of,  273 

Epaminondas,  restores  Messene,  38; 
killed  in  the  battle  of  Mantineia,  ib. 

Epeiros,  relations  of  its  people  to  th« 
Greeks,  20,  25 ;  kingship  in,  27 ',  its 
greatness  under  Pyrrhos,  43 ;  reck- 
oned as  a  Greek  state,  ib.  \  becorres 
a  Federal  commonwealth,  46 ;  helps 
Macedonia  against  Rome,  64  ;  Roman 
conquest  of,  65  ;  despots  of,  190 

Epidamnos,  submits  to  Rome,  63 

Estates,  assemblies  of,  184  ;  established 
in  France  by  Philip  the  Fair,  184,  185 

Esthonia,  193 

Etruria,  doubtful  origin  of  its  people, 
50 ;  Confederation  of,  ib.  ;  Gaulish 
invasion  of,  56 

Eugenius  IV.,  Pope,  207  ;  holds  a  coun- 
cil at  Ferrara  and  Florence,  208 

Eumenes,  King  of  Pergamos,  67 

Euripides,  34 

Europe,  its  geographical  character,  10 ; 
its  three  great  peninsulas,  n  ;  settle- 
ment of  the  Aryans  in,  12-15  i  'l» 
characteristics  in  modern  times,  236  ; 
spread  of  Christianity  in,  238 

Evesham.  battle  of,  185 


F. 

Family  Compact,  313 

Farel,  William,  260 

Fatimites,  their  Caliphate  in  Egypt, 
186  ;  put  down  by  Saladin,  187 

Federation,  nature  of,  44 

Ferdinand  III.  of  Castile,  finally  unites 
Castile  and  Leon.  195  ;  his  conquests 
from  the  Mahometans,  ib. 

Ferdinand,  King  of  Naples,  228 

Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  marries  Isabella 
of  Castile,  228 ;  their  conquest  oi 
Granada,  229;  his  conquest  of  Na- 
varre, 242 ;  his  treaty  with  Lewis 
XII.,  245  ;  his  conquest  of  Naples, 
ib.  ',  joins  in  the  League  of  Cambray, 
ib.  ;  his  death,  246 

Ferdinand  VII.  of  Spain,  338,  360; 
death  of,  ib. 

Ferdinand   I.,  Emperor,  251 

Ferdinand  II.,  Emperor,  his  luccesse* 
in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  269;  hit 
death.  270 

Ferdinand  III.,  Emperor,  a 70 


38o 


INDEX. 


Ferdinand  V.,  of  Hungary  and  Austria, 
356.  357 

Ferrara,  Council  of,  208 

Feudal  Tenure,  origin  of,  165 ;  its  dif- 
ference from  allodial  tenure,  ib.  ; 
effects  of,  165,  166 

Fiefs,  see  Feudal  Tenure 

Finland,  Russian  conquest  of,  341 

Fins,  a  remnant  of  the  non-Aryan  peo- 
ple of  Europe.  8 

Flamininus,  Titus  Quinctius,  proclaims 
the  freedom  of  Greece,  64 

Flanders,  Counts  of,  131  ;  a  fief  of  the 
French  crown,  210;  united  to  the 
Duchy  of  Burgundy,  222;  freed  from 
homage  to  France,  247 

Florencs,  Council  of,  208  ;  subjection  of 
Pisa  to,  211  ;  constitution  of  211,  212; 
power  of  the  Medici  in,  212  :  the 
birthplace  of  Dante,  ib.  ;  gets  rid  of 
the  Medici,  245  ;  obliged  to  take  them 
back,  246  :  siege  and  subjugation  of, 
248  :  the  Medici  made  Dukes  of,  ib.  \ 
Sienna  added  to,  ib.  ;  becomes  the 
temporary  capital  of  Italy,  356 

Florida,  Spanish  colony.  313 ;  ceded  to 
England,  it'.  ;  given  buck  to  Spain, 
3»3 

Forest  Cantons,  the  three,  league  formed 
by,  219 

France,  origin  of  name,  104  :  Duchy  of, 
131  :  beginning  of  the  kingdom,  13*  ; 
end  of  her  connexion  with  the  Empire, 
141  ;  relations  of,  with  England,  152, 
153;  effects  of  the  Norman  conquest 
on,  i!>,  ;  effects  of  the  Feudal  Tenures 
on,  167;  the  crown  becomes  heredi- 
tary, 168  ;  relations  of,  with  England 
under  Henry  II.,  180;  conquest  of 
English  possessions  in,  181;  growth 
of  the  royal  power  in,  182  ;  advance 
of  her  dominion,  183  ;  constitution  of, 
184,  185  ;  suppression  of  Templars  in, 
206 ;  allied  with  Scotland  against 
England,  215;  wars  of,  with  England, 
215-217;  further  extensior  of  her  do- 
minion, 218 :  Duchy  of  Burgundy 
annexed  to,  223,  242  :  peasant  revolts 
in,  232 ;  acquires  Roussillon  and 
Artois,  243 ;  rivalry  of,  with  Spain, 
044,  246 ;  advance  of  the  power  of, 
•S3  i  her  annexation  of  Britanny,  ib.  ; 
her  wars  with  England,  254 :  wins 
lack  Calais,  ib. ;  her  wars  with  the 
Empire,  ib.  '.  annexes  the  three  Lo- 
tharingian  bishopricks,  ib. ;  her  wars 
with  Spain,  255 ;  persecution  and 
civil  wars  in,  it>. ;  dealings  of,  with 
Savoy,  261 ;  her  part  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  270;  further  annexations 
of,  272;  her  settlements  in  America. 


277  :  greatness  of,  under  T-ewis  XIV, 
282;  Grand  Alliance  formed  against, 
285 ;  persecutions  of  Protestants  in, 
286;  wars  of,  305,  306,  310;  position 
of,  in  i8th  century,  311;  her  annexa- 
tions of  Lorraine  and  Corsica,  312? 
allied  with  Spain  against  Portugal. 
313  ;  her  wars  with  England  in  India, 
320,  321 ;  her  loss  of  Canada,  312  ; 
beginning  of  the  Revolution,  328  ; 
divided  into  departments,  ib.  ;  an- 
nexes Venaissin  and  Avignon,  /'/>.  ; 
becomes  a  Republic,  329  ;  wars  and 
conquests  of  the  revolution,  ib.  ;  rule 
of  Buonaparte,  330  ;  extent  of  his  Em- 
pire, 332  ;  restoration  of  the  Bourbons, 
333  ;  her  North-American  possessions 
bought  by  United  States,  345  ;  rev- 
olutions in,  350,  351  ;  late  wars  of, 
352  ;  last  republic  of,  ib. 

Franche  Comte\  see  Burgundy 

Francia,  meanings  of  the  name,  104, 
129  ;  extent  under  Charles  the  Great, 
127 

Francis  I.  of  France,  his  rivalry  with 
Charles  V.,  246  ;  his  wars  in  Italy, 
ib.  ;  his  captivity  and  release,  it:  ; 
makes  peace  with  Francis,  247 ;  his 
conquest  of  Savoy,  254  ;  characftr 
and  death  of,  Hi. 

Francis  II.  of  France,  reign  of,  255  ; 
persecution  of  the  Hngutriots  under, 
ib.  ;  marries  Mary  of  Scotland,  263 

Francis,  Duke  of  Loraine,  marries  M.ina 
Theresa,  306;  succeeds  to  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Tuscany,  ib.  ;  see  Francii 
I.,  Emperor. 

Francis  I.,  Kmperor,  307 

Francis  II.,  Emperor.  308  ;  resigns  the 
Imperial  crown,  334  ;  his  title  of  Em- 
peror of  Austria,  ib.  ',  President  of  tha 
German  Confederation,  336  ;  reign  of, 
356 

Francis  Joseph  of  Austria,  357  ;  crowned 
King  of  Hungary,  ib. 

Francis,  Saint,  founder  of  the  Frascin- 
can  order,  170 

Franciscan  order,  foundation  of,  170 

Franconia,  origin  of  the  name,  147 

Francoman  Emperors,  147  ;  end  of  theii 
dynasty,  148 

Franken,  see  Franconia 

Frankfurt    (am  Main),   free  city,   336 
annexed  to  Prussia,  354 

Franks,  first  heard  of,  91  ;  their  settle- 
ments in  Gaul,  103  ;  their  advanca 
under  Chlodwig,  103,  104  :  their  do- 
minion in  Italy,  121  :  greatness  of, 
under  Charles  the  Great,  127 ;  di- 
visions of  their  kingdoms,  128  ;  union 
of,  under  Charles  die  Fat,  129  ;  J^^*t 


INDEX. 


rrn,  use  of  the  name,  157 :  Franks, 
East,  choose  Arnulf  king,  130  ;  their 
kingdom  grows  into  Germany,  ib. 

Franks,  West,  choose  Oiio  king,  130; 
their  kingdom  grows  into  France,  131 

Frederick  L,  Emperor,  surnamed  Bar- 
barossa,  177  ;  his  dealings  with  the 
Italian  cities,  ib.  ;  with  the  Popes, 
i/8  ;  with  the  Kings  of  Sicily,  ib.  ; 
with  the  Eastern  Empire,  ib.  ;  dies  on 
the  Third  Crusade,  ib.,  i8j 

Frederick  II.,  Emperor,  his  two  elec- 
tions, 179  ;  called  the  "  Wonder  of 
the  World,"  ib.  ;  flourishing  state  of 
Sicily,  under,  ib.  •  his  dealings  with 
Germany,  Italy  and  the  Popes,  ib.  ; 
wins  back  Jerusalem,  187 ;  favours 
Teutonic  knights,  194 

Frederick  III.,  last  Emperor  crowned  at 
Rome,  204 

Frederick  I.,  King  of  Denmark  and 
Norway,  265 

Frederick  II.,  265 

Frederick  III.  of  Denmark,  the  king- 
dom becomes  an  absolute  monarchy 
under,  295 

Frederick  VII.  of  Denmark  grants  a 
free  constitution,  362 

Frederick,  Elector  of  Saxony,  protector 
of  Luther,  251 

Frederick,  Elector  Palatine,  chosen 
King  of  Bohemia,  269  ;  driven  out,  ib. 

Frederick  of  Aragon,  King  of  Sicily  214 

Frederick  of  Austria,  double  election  of, 
with  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  203 

Frederick  of  Swabia,  brother  of  Conrad 
III.,  177 

Frederick  William  I.,  the  Great  Elector 
of  Brandenburg,  266  ;  joins  the  league 
against  Lewis  XIV.,  284 

Frederick  I.,  first  King  of  Prussia,  266, 
290 

Frederick  William  I.,  King  of  Prussia, 
290 

Frederick  II.  (the  Great)  of  Prussia,  his 
claims  to  and  conquest  of  Silesia,  307: 
growth  of  Prussia  under,  308  ;  his 
share  in  the  partition  o!  Poland,  317 

Frederick  William  III.  of  Prussia,  his 
annexation  of  Hanover,  335 

Frederickshall,  Charles  XII.  killed  at, 
2  95 

Freedraen    obtain    Roman    citizenship, 

,  ?2 
French,  Dukes  of,  131 

French,  Romance  speech  of  Northern 
Gaul,  107,  131  ;  use  of,  in  England, 
152,  232  ;  its  media  val  literature,  172, 
^  231,  279 

Froissart.  his  history  of  the  Hundred 
Vears'  War,  231 


G. 

Gades,  Phoenician  colony,  23 

Galatia,  settlement  of,  42 

Galba,  Emperor,  86 

Gallienus,  Emperor,  90 

Ganganelli,  see  Clement  XIV. 

Garibaldi,  356 

Gascony,  Duchy  of,  131 

Gaul,  Cisalpine,  49  ;  Roman  conquest 
of,  67,  68  ;  invaded  by  Cimbri  and 
Teutones,  70 

Gaul,  Transalpine,  Greek  Colonies  on 
the  coast,  24,  69  ;  Roman  province  in, 
ib.  ;  Caesajs  conquest  of,  76;  reason 
of  its  importance,  77  ;  settlement  oi 
Burgundians  and  Franks  in,  io;j ; 
Romance  nations  and  languages  in, 
105,  107;  Saracens  in,  118;  driven 
out  of,  119;  invasions  and  settlements 
of  Northmen  in,  136  ;  see  France. 

Gauls,  their  invasion  of  Greece  and 
Macedonia,  42  ;  their  settlement  in 
Galatia,  ib.  ;  defeat  Romans  at  the 
Allia,56;  take  Rome,  ib.  ;  help  Sam- 
nites  against  Rome,  57 

Gelon,  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  59 

General  Councils,  see  Church 

Geneva,  preaching  of  Farel  in,  260  ;  be- 
sieged by  Dukes  of  Savoy,  ib.  ;  Cal- 
vin's influence  in,  261  ;  annexed  to 
¥  ranee,  339  ;  freed,  340 

Genoa,  its  position  in  i4th  and  isth 
centuries,  211  ;  bombardment  of  by 
Lewis  XIV.,  284  ;  revolt  of  Corsica 
from,  312  ;  revolutions  in,  314  :  joined 
to  Piedmont,  337 

Geoffrey,  Count  of  Anjou,  husband  oi 
Empress  Matilda,  153 

Geography  of  Europe,  10 

George  I.  of  England,  289,  309 

George  II.  of  England,  309 

George  III.  of  England,  310 

George  of  Denmark,  King  of  Greece, 
358 

George,  Czerni,  revolt  of  Scrvia  under, 
325  . 

Georgia,  colony  of,  founded,  301 

German  Confederation,  the,  336 

German  Emperors  of  the  West,  125 

German  language,  fee  Teutonic,  Dutch, 
High  and  Low — Germany 

Germanicus,  origin  of  his  name,  85  ; 
death  of,  ib. 

Germans,  early  government  of,  6  ;  Ro- 
man wars  with,  85,  88,  99 ;  their  in- 
vasion and  settlements  in  the  Empire, 
09 

Germany,  campaigns  of  Caesar  in,  77 ; 
united  under  Charles  the  G;  eat,  127  } 
beginning  of  the  kingdom,  129,  136 


INDEX. 


wars  with  the  Hungarians,  ib.  ; 
Saxon  Kings  of,  139  ;  union  with  the 
Roman  Empire,  140  ;  becomes  the 
centre  of  the  Krnpire,  162  ;  effects  of 
the  Feudal  Tenures  in,  167  ;  election  of 
Kings  i'i,  it.,  168  ;  special  greatness  of 
Prelates  in,  170  ;  language  of,  172  ; 

frowth  of  towns  in,  173  ;  reign  of 
'rederick  II.  in,  179  :  decline  of  the 
kingdom,  183,  198  ;  effects  of  the 
Great  Interregnum,  201  :  King  of, 
use  of  the  title,  206  ;  its  division  into 
circles,  251  ;  the  Reformation  in,  251, 
253  ;  results  of  Peace  of  Augsburg, 
253  ;  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in,  269, 
271  ;  state  of,  after  the  Peace  of  West- 
phalia, 271  ;  state  of  literature  in,  279  ; 
liberation  of,  from  BuonapartCj  332  ; 
effects  of  the  French  Revolution  in, 
333<  335  :  e"d  of  the  kingdom  of,  333, 
334  ;  confederation  of,  336  ;  formation 
of  the  Zollvcrein  in,  353;  revolutions 
in.  il>.  ;  union  and  Empire  of,  354 

GhibeKn,  origin  and  meaning  of  the 
name,  147 

Gian  (Jak-azzo  Visconti,  see  Visconti 

Gibraltar,  taken  by  the  English,  286, 
289  ;  defence  of,  310 

Glabro,  Manins  Acilius.  defeats  Antio- 
chos  at  Thermopylai,  65 

Gods,  names  of,  common  to  Aryan  na- 
tions, 6;  Roman  and  Greek  con- 
founded. 52 

Godfrey  of  Boulogne,  King  of  Jerusa- 
lem, 1-7 

Golden  Bull,  the,  204 

Good  Hope,  Cape  of,  its  discovery,  274 

Gothic  lai.-guage,  91,  108 

G.iths,  firjt  heard  of,  91  ;  wars  of,  with 
Romans,  ib.  ;  defeated  by  Claudius, 
Hi.  ,  converted  by  Ulfilas.  ib.  ;  pass 
into  the  Kmpire,  it.  ;  defeat  Valens 
at  Hadrianople,  ib.  ;  their  settlement 
in  Dacia,  100 

Goths,  Kast,  their  dominion  in  Italy, 
104,  105  ;  overthrow  of  their  kingdom, 
114 

Goths,  West,  take  Rome,  101  ;  their 
kingdom  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  101, 
103  ;  lose  and  recover  part  of  Spain, 
114,  116 

Gotland,  Isle  of,  annexed  to  Sweden, 
265 

Gotthard  Kettler,  Grand  Master  of 
Livonia,  his  cessions  to  Pcland,  266 

Government,  earliest  form  of,  among 
Aryan  nations,  6,27;  fcrnis  of,  in 
Greece,  27 ;  in  ancient  Rome,  52 ; 
effects  of  standing  armies  upon,  237  ; 

Gracchus  Tiberius  and  Caius,  72 

Grunada,  Mahometan  kingdom  of,  230  ; 


conqt  :redby  Ferdinand  and  Isabel]* 
229 

Grand  Alliance,  the,  285 

Granikos,  battle  of,  40 

Granson,  battle  of,  223 

Gratian,  Emperor,  extinction  of  pagan- 
ism under,  99,  ico 

Gravtlines,  battle  of,  254 

Grtat  Britain,  kingdom  of,  289  310;  re- 
volt of  the  American  colonies  front, 
310,  322  ;  position  of,  in  i8th  centurv, 
31 1  ,  Ireland  united  to,  340 ;  posses- 
sions abroad,  344  ;  extension  and  in- 
creased independence  of  her  colonies, 
363  ;  less  interference  of.  in  conti- 
nental affairs,  364  ;  later  wars  of,  ib.  • 
firm  union  of,  300-364 

Great  Mogul,  title  of,  300,  364 

Great  Schism,  206 

Great  Interregnum,  200 

Greece,  Aryan  settlement  in,  12 ;  its 
history  earlier  than  that  of  Rome,  18  : 
influence  of  its  geographical  charactei 
on,  11,  21  ;  its  earlier  political  advance, 
21  ;  early  history  of,  how  far  mist- 
worthy,  30,  31  ;  first  Persian  invasion, 

32  ;  second,  33  ;  supremacy  of  Philip, 
39  :  Gaulish  invasion,   42  ;   character 
of  its  later  history,  43  ;  prevalence  of 
Federal  government  in,  44,   45  :  the 
last  days  of  its  independence,  46  ;  first 
dealings  of,  with  Rome  ;  freed   from 
Macedonia,  64  ;  practically  dependent 
on  Rome,  ib.  \  final  conquest,  65  ;  in- 
fluence of  its  culture  in  Asia,  67  ;  last- 
ing power  of  its  civilization,  79  ;  Sla- 
vonic   settlements  in,    143  ;    Turkish 
conquest  of,   227  ;  War  of  Indepen- 
dence, 357  ;  kingdom  of,  358 

Greek,  an  Aryan  tongue,  4  ;  use  of,  in 
the  Eastern  Empire,  112,  171  ;  in 
Southern  Italy,  123 

Greek  provinces  of  Rome,  81 

Greeks,  their  kindred  with  Italians,  12, 
20,  51  :  first  Aryan  nation  mentioned 
in  written  history,  19  ;  their  relationi 
to  the  neighbouring  nations,  20  ;  their 
relations  with  the  Phoenicians,  23  ; 
extent  of  their  colonies,  23,  24  ;  dis- 
tinction between  them  and  the  Bar- 
barians, 25  ;  their  forms  of  govern 
ment,  27,  28  :  their  religion,  2C)  ;  con- 
quest of  their  cities  in  Asia  Minor,  by 
Croesus,  32  ;  by  Cyrus,  ib.  ;  then 
disputes,  with  Persian  Kings,  ib.  ; 
submission  of  their  colonies  to  Xerxes. 

33  ;  their  Asiatic  cities  given   up   to 
Persia,  37  ;  spread  of  their  civilization 
in    Asia,    40,    41  ;  th'.ir    colonies    in 
Southern  Italy,  50,  51  ;  their  cobnie* 
in  Can),  69 


INDEX. 


Greenland,  Scandinavian  settlement  in, 
275 

Gregory   I.   (the   Great),    Pope,   sends 

Augustine  to  Britain,  133 
Gregory     II.,     Pope,     withstands     the 

Iconoclasts,  121 
Gregory    III.,    Pope,    withstands    the 

IconocNsts,  121 

Dregory  VII.  (Hildebrand),  Pope,  dis- 
putes of,  with  Henry  IV.,  148  ;  driven 

out  by  Henry,  ib.  ;  his  designs,  149 
Gregory  IX.,  Pope,  opposes  Frederick 

II.,    187  ;   preaches    crusade  against 

the  Prussians,  194 
Gregory    X.,    Pope,    his    measures  of 

pacification,  204,  205  ;  his  death,  ib. 
Gregory    XI.,    Pope,    brings   back   the 

Papal  court  to  Rome,  206 
Gregory  XII.,  deposed  by  Council  of 

Constanz,  207 
Gut  If,  origin  and  meaning  of  the  name, 

177 
Guise,    family    of,    its    relations     with 

France,  255 
Gunhild,  daughter  of  Cnut,  marries  the 

Emperor  Henry  II.,  148 
Gunpowder,  invention  of,  209 
Gustavus  Vasa,   King  of  Sweden,  264  ; 

growth  of  the  kingdom  under,  ib. 
Gustavus   Adolphus,   of  Sweden,  265  ; 

his  share  in  Thirty  Years'  War,  270  ; 

death  of,  ib. 
Gustavus  III.  of  Sweden,  war  of,  with 

Russia,  341  ;  murder  of,  ib. 
Gustavus   IV.   of   Sweden,   reign   and 

deposition  of,  341 
Gutenberg  of  Mainz,  his   invention  of 

printing,  209 
Guthrum,  Danish  King,  Alfred's  treaty 

with,  136 


H. 

Habsburg,  House  of,  202,  306 

Hadrian,  Emperor,  87  ;  gives  up  the 
conquests  of  Trajan,  88 

Hadrian  IV.,  Pope,  his  disputes  with 
Frederick  I.,  178  ;  gives  his  Bull  to 
Henry  II.  for  the  conquest  of  Ireland, 
185 

Hadrian  VI.,  Pope,  character  of,  249 

Hadrianople,  battle  of,  100 ;  taken  by 
the  Ottomans,  225 

Hamburg,  commonwealth  of,  174,  see 
Hanseatic  League 

Hamilcar  Barkas,  growth  of  the  Car- 
thaginian power  in  Spain  under,  62 

yannibal,  general  of  the  Carthaginians, 
takes  SaRimtum,  62  ;  his  campaigns 
in  Italy,  it.  ;  defeated  by  Scipio,  63  ; 


383 

makes  a  league  with  Philip  of  Mace- 
donia, 64 

Hanover,  Electorate  of.  joined  to  Prus- 
Sla>  335:  kingdom  of,  336;  annexed 
to  Prussia,  354 

Hanseatic  League,  formation  of,  173 ; 
its  wars  with  Scandinavia,  229 ;  dim- 
inution of  its  power,  -271  ;  its  cities 
annexed  to  France,  336 ;  joins  the 
German  Confederation,  ill. 

Harold  Blaatand,  Danish  King,  wars 
of  Otto  II.  with,  141 ;  conversion  of, 
ib. 

Harold  Hardrada,  of  Norway,  invades 
England,  151 

Harold,  King  of  the  English,  defeated 
by  William  the  Conqueror,  151 

Hasdrubal,  62 

Hastings,  battle  of,  151 

Hastings,  Warren,  321 

Hayti,  275  ;  revolutions  in,  345 

Hebrews,  a  Semitic  nation,  7 

Hedwig,  Queen  of  Poland,  marrie. 
Jagellon,  Duke  of  Lithuania,  230 

Heligoland,  English  possession  of,  344 

Hellas,  mear.ing  of  the  word,  20 

Helvetic  Republic,  339 

Henry,  Duke  of  Saxony,  elected  King 
of  Germany,  138  ;  his  wars  with  the 
Magyars,  ib. 

Henry  the  Lion,  Duke  of  Saxony  and 
Bavaria,  his  wars  with  Frederick  I.. 
178 ;  marries  Matilda,  daughter  of 
Henry  II.  of  England,  ib.  ;  loss  of 
dominions,  ib, 

Henry  II.,  Emperor,  141 

Henry  III.,  Emperor,  his  dealings  with 
the  Papacy,  147  ;  his  alliance  with 
Englan'd,  148 

Henry  IV.,  Emperor,  revolt  of  the  Sax- 
ons against,  148  ;  disputes  between 
him  and  Gregory  VII.,  148  :  his  wars 
with  his  sons,  ib.;  drives  Gregory  from 
Rome,  ib.  •  crowned  Emperor  by 
Clement  III.,  ib. 

Henry  V.,  Emperor,  his  war  with  his 
father,  148 ;  his  disputes  with  the 
Popes,  ib.  ;  marries  Matilda,  daugh- 
ter of  Henry  I.  of  England,  ii,  ;  ends 
the  Franconian  dynasty,  ib. 

Henry  VI.,  Emperor,  his  conquest  ol 
Sicily,  178 

Henry  VII.,  Emperor,  revival  of  the 
Empire  under,  202  ;  coronations  of, 
at  Milan  and  Rome,  ib.  ;  death  of,  ib. 

Henry  I.  of  England,  marries  Matilda, 
daughter  of  Malcolm  of  Scotland,  153 

Henry  II.  of  England,  pedigree  of,  153  ; 
marries  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  ff:  : 
dominions  of,  170;  death  of,  181 ; 
conquest  of  Ireland  under,  185 


3*4 


INDEX. 


Henry  III.  of  England,  reign  of,  182; 
his  wars  with  France,  183 ;  civil  wars 
of  his  reign,  184 

Henry  V.  of  England,  his  French  vic- 
tories, 217 

Hinry  VI.  of  England,  crowned  at 
t'aris,  217 

Henry  VIII.  of  England,  takes  Bou- 
logne, 254 ;  aspires  to  the  Empire, 
i'.u  ,  throws  off  the  Papal  power,  262 

Henry  I.  of  K ranee,  153 

Henry  11.  of  France,  his  wars  with  the 
Empire,  ..54  ;  annexes  the  three  Bish- 
fjincks,  //'.  ;  persecution  of  Hugue- 
nots under,  ^25 

Htnry  111.  of  France,  255,  256 

H'.:nry  IV.  of  France  and  Navarre, 
leader  of  the  Huguenots,  255  ;  his 
possessions,  256 ;  turns  Catholic,  ib.  ; 
his  niunler,  u>. 

Henry,  Dim,  Infant  of  Portugal,  mari- 
time discoveries  and  conquests  under, 
228 

Henry  of  Trasuimara.  civil  war  of,  with 
Pedro  of  Castile.  227  ;  kills  1'edro,  228 

Herakleia,  long  independence  of,  42 

Heiachus,  Emperor,  115  ;  his  Persian 
campaigns,  116 

Hermann  of  Sal/a,  Grand  Master  of  the 
Teutonic  Order,  194 

Herodotos,  history  of,  31 

Heroes,  children  of  the  Gods,  29 
Ages,  27 

Hessen-Cassei,  Electorate  of,  3  4 

Hi^h-  Dutch  tongue,  influence  of  Luther 
on,  279 

Hienm,  King   of  Syracuse,    helps  Car- 
ih.ige   against  Rome,  60  ;    makes  an 
>  e  with  Koine,  13 

Hiidebrand,  favours  the  designs  of  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror,  151,  see  also 
Gregory  Vll. 

Hindoslan.  Aryan  settlements  in,  9 

Hippias,  Tyrant  of  Athens,  32 

Hi.-.]  <ui>..ia,  see  Hayti 

Hi-'.oiy.  different  aspects  of,  i  ;  Eastern 
und  Western,  dillerent  characters  of, 
i  ;  division  of,  into  periods,  17  ;  how 
soon  trustworthy,  17,  18  ;  writers  of, 
at  Constantinople,  171 ;  English  and 
trench  writers  of,  231 

HobewtMifen,  House  of,  176 

Hoi  i.;ou  Khan,  ends  Caliphate  of  Bag- 
dad. 197 

H  lilaud,  Stadholdcrship  of,  294 ;  see 
Netherlands  and  United  Provinces 

HoUtein,  Duchy  of,  ils  relations  with 
Denmark,  229,  318,  342,  362  ;  a  fief  of 
die  Empire,  229  ;  joined  to  Prussia, 
362 

Holy  League,  the,  245 


Homeric  Poims,  their  value,  30 

Honorius,  Western   Emperor,  101 

Horace,  84 

Hospitallers,  foundation  of,  171,  186 
driven  out  of  Rhodes,  268  ;  their  po» 
session  and  defence  of  Malta,  ib. 

House  of  Commons,  origin  of,  185 

House  of  Lords,  origin  of,  185 

Hugh  the  Great,  Duke  of  the  French, 
132  ;  his  wars  with  Lewis,  ib. 

Hugh  Capet,  Duke  of  the  French, 
chosen  King,  132 

Huguenots,  persecutions  of,  255  ;  mas- 
sacre of,  256  ;  colonize  Carolina,  277 

Hundred  Years'  War,  256  ;  compared 
with  Peloponnesian  War,  ib.  ;  end  of, 
217 

Hungarians,  their  settlement  in  Europe, 
15,  138  ;  their  wars  with  Germany  and 
conversion,  139,  168 

Hungary,  kingdom  of,  founded,  139, 
163 ;  ravages  of  the  Moguls  in,  197  ; 
its  connection  with  the  Empire,  203  : 
its  Angevin  Kings,  230 ;  threatened 
by  the  Turks,  ib. ;  designs  of  Austria 
on,  231  ;  Turkish  conquests  in,  268 ; 
crown  passes  to  House  of  Austria, 
ib.  ;  revolts  against  Ferdinand  11., 
269 ;  reign  of  Leopold,  290 ;  Turks 
driven  out  of,  291  ;  crown  made 
hereditary,  ib.  ;  civil  wars  in,  it.  ; 
dealings  of  Joseph  II.  with,  308; 
revolution  and  re-conquest,  in,  356, 
357  ;  restoration  of,  357 

Hnniades,  John,  exploits  of,  against  the 
Turks,  231 

Huns,  driven  out  of  China,  100 ;  enter 
Europe,  ib.  \  their  dominion  under 
Amla,  102  ;  their  defeat  at  Chilooi, 
il>. 

Huss,  John,  burning  of,  207 

Hussite  War  in  Bohemia,  207 


Ibrahim  lays  waste  Peloponnesos,  258 
Iconoclasts  controversy,  120,  141 
Ignatius   Loyola   founds   the   Order   of 

Jesuits,  250 
Ikomun,  capital  of  Scljuk  Turks  in  Asia 

Minor,  158 

Iliad,  see  Homeric  Poems 
lllyria,    Greek  settlements   in,  24  ;  war 

of,  with  Rome,  63  ;  Roman  Emperan 

from.  89,  91,  93 
Imjxrator,  title  of,  78,  79 
Imperial  Chamber,  251 
Infantry,  use  of,  in  war,  232 
India,  Aryan   settlements   in,    9 ;   begii> 

ning  of  Mahometan  conquests  of,  15',' 


INDEX. 


385 


English  and  Dutch  settlements  in, 
398;  Mogul  rule  in,  ib.,  299;  begin- 
ning of  the  Company  in,  ib.  ;  French 
and  English  struggles  for  supremacy 
in,  320  ;  growth  of  English  power  in, 
321,  344 ;  mutiny  of  the  native  sol- 
diers, 364  ;  its  government  transferred 
to  the  British  crown,  ib. 

Indies,  West,  discovery  of,  by  Colum- 
bus, 275 

Innocent  II.,  Pope,  176 

Innocent  III.,  Pope,  179  ;  his  dealings 
with  John  of  England,  182 

Innocent  IV.,  Pope,  deposes  Frederick 
II.,  179,  182;  protests  against  the 
taking  of  Zara,  189,  191 ;  proclaims 
a  crusade  against  the  Albigenses,  191; 
offers  crown  of  Sicily  to  Kdmund  of 
England,  192 

Innocent  VIII. ,  Pope,  213 

Interregnum,  the  Great,  201 

Ionian  Islands,  Republic  of,  formed, 
under  English  protection,  341  ;  in- 
corporated with  Greece,  258,  363 

lonians,  their  Asiatic  colonies,  30 

Iran,  meaning  of  the  name,  8 

Ireland,  Celtic  inhabitants  of,  108 ; 
English  conquest  of,  155,  185 ;  Re- 
formation in,  240;  Cromwell's  con- 
quest of,  287  ;  conquest  of,  by  Wil- 
liam III.,  289;  independence  of,  310; 
rebellion  in,  340  ;  union  of,  with  Great 
Britain,  ib.  ;  disaffection  In,  357 ; 
disestablishment  ot  Church  in,  ib. 

Irish,  a  Celtic  people,  108  ;  see  Scots 

Irish  tongue,  13 

Isabella,  wife  of  Edward  II.  of  Eng- 
land, 215 ;  Edward  III.'s  claim  to 
the  French  crown  through  her,  ib. 

Isabella,  Queen  of  Castile,  marries 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  228 ;  their 
joint  rule,  ib.  ;  conquest  of  Granada 
under,  229;  death  of,  241 

Isabella  II.,  Queen  of  Spain,  reign 
deposition  of,  360 

Issos,  battle  of,  40 

Italian,  a  Romance  tongue,  106 ;  fixed 
by  Dante's  poems,  172 

Italians,  their  kindred  with  the  Greeks, 
I2>  5r>  57  i  their  relations  to  Rome, 

58  ;  rise  against  Rome,  73 

Italy,  ojie  of  the  three  great  European 
peninsulas,  n  ;  its  Aryan  and  pre- 
Aryan  inhabitants,  12,  13,  48,  50 ; 
geography  of,  48  ;  effect  of  its  geo- 
graphy on  its  history,  50  ;  language  re- 
ligion and  government  in,  52  ;  Leagues 
in.  ib.  ;  Roman  conquest,  of  57, 

59  ;  invaded  by  Hannibal,  62  ;  end  of 
Emperors   in,    102  ;    passes   into   the 
hands  of  the  Barbarians,  103  ;  rule  of 


Odoacer  in,  ib.  ;  East- Gothic  kin™ 
dom  in,  104;  flourishing  state  of, 
under  Theodoric,  105  ;  recovered  to 
the  Empire  by  Belisarius  and  Nar- 
ses,  114;  Lombard  conquest  of,  ib., 
120;  decline  of  the  Imperial  power  in, 
121 ;  dominion  of  the  Franks  in,  122 
rule  of  Lothar  in,  128 ;  rival  Kings,  130  , 
kingdom  united  to  Germany,  140 ; 
growth  of  the  towns  in,  174  ;  decline 
of  their  power  and  freedom,  ib.  ; 
dealings  of  Frederick  I.  with,  177, 
178;  Frederick  II. 's  wars  in,  179; 
falls  off  from  the  Empiie,  200 ;  revival 
of  learning  in,  208,  209 ;  use  of  print- 
ing and  gunpowder  in,  209 ;  its  Com- 
monwealths in  I4th  and  isth  centuries, 
209,  212  ;  growth  of  Tyrants  in,  ib.  ; 
made  the  battlefield  of  Europe,  244, 
292  ;  rivalry  of  France  and  Spain  in, 
244.  246 ;  wars  of  Charles  VIII.  and 
Lewis  XII.  in,  244-246 ;  wars  of 
Charles  and  Francis  in,  246 ;  domi- 
nion of  Charles  V.  in,  247 ;  Spanish 
rule  in,  ib.  ;  no  progress  made  by 
Reformation  in,  249 ;  state  of,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  313;  wars  of  the 
French  Revolution  in.  329,  337 ;  Buona- 
parte's kingdom  in,  331 ;  restoration 
of  the  princes,  337  ;  changes  in,  ib.  ; 
power  of  Austria  in,  338 ;  disturb- 
ances in,  354 ;  revolutions  and  wars, 
deliverance  of,  352-356  ;  formation  of 
the  kingdom,  355,  356 
Iturbide,  Emperor  of  Mexico,  365 
Ivan  Vasilowitz,  frees  Russia  from  Mo- 
guls, 327 

Ivan  IV.  of  Russia,  his  wars,  266 ;  takes 
the  title  of  Czar,  267 

J. 

Jacob,  Caliph  of  the  Almohades,  defeats 

Alfonso  of  Castile  at  Alarcos,  195  ; 

growth  of  the  Mahometan  power  in 

Spain  under,  ib. 
Jagellon,    Duke  of  Lithuania,  marries 

Hedwig,  Queen  of  Poland,  230 ;  his 

conversion,  ib. 

Jamaica,  English  conquest  of,  287 
James  the  Conqueror,  King  of  Aragon, 

reign  of,  195 

James  V.  of  Scotland,  death  of,  263 
James  I.  of  England  (VI.  of  Scotland), 

union  of  England  and  Scotland  under, 

264  :  his  foreign  policy,  ib. 
James  II.  of  England,  reign  and  abdi- 
cation of,  285,  288 
James  Franks    Edward    Stuart    (<>M 

Pretender),  attempt    of,    abetted   by 


386 


INDEX. 


Lewi*    XIV.,    309 ;    by    Spain    and 
Sweden,  ib. 

Jamteland,  annexed  to  Sweden,  265 
anissaries,   origin  of,   225  ;  decay  of, 
297  ;  end  of,  358 

}assy,  Treaty  of,  319 
ehangir,    Mogul    Emperor,    grants  a 
Qiarter  to  the  English,  298 

Jena,  battle  of,  335 

Jenghiz  Khan,  rise  of  the  Moguls  under, 
196 

Jerome  Buonaparte,  King  of  West- 
phalia, 335 

Jerome  of  Prague,  burning  of,  207 

Jerusalem,  taken  by  Pompeius,  75  ;  de- 
stroyed by  Titus,  86 ;  taken  by  the 
Crusaders,  157 ;  kingdom  of,  i/>., 
186 ;  taken  by  Saladin,  187 ;  won 
back  by  Frederick  II.,  ib.  ;  final 
capture  of,  by  the  Chorasmians,  188  ; 
end  of  the  kingdom,  ib. 

Jesuits,  order  of,  their  foundation  and 
growth,  250  ;  power  of,  ib.  ;  driven 
out  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  313  ;  sup- 
pressed by  Clement  XIV.,  315 

Jews,  a  Semitic  people,  7  ;  religion  of, 
ib.  ;  subdued  by  Titus,  86 ;  persecu- 
tion of,  in  Spain,  244 

Joachim  Murat,  King  of  Naples,  332 

Joan  of  Arc,  called  the  Maid  of  Orleans, 
317 

Joanna  of  Castile,  242 ;  married  to 
Philip  of  Austria,  ib. 

Joanna  I.,  Queen  of  Naples,  213 

Joanna  II.,  Queen  of  Naples,  213 

John,  Chrysostom,  Saint,  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  112 

John  XII.,  Pope,  crowns  Otto  the 
Great,  140 

John  XXII.,  Pope,  quarrels  of,  with 
Lewis  of  Havana,  903,  206 

John  XXIII.,  Pope,  deposed,  207 

John  of  Aragon,  revolt  of  the  Catalans 
against,  228 

John  of  Austria,  Don,  258 

John,  King  of  Bohemia,  killed  at  Crecy, 

2O3,  2l6 

John  of  England  succeeds  Richard, 
181 ;  loses  Normandy,  ib.  ;  quarrels 
with  Innocent  the  Third,  i8a ;  signs 
the  Great  Charter,  184 

John,  King  of  France,  taken  prisoner  at 
Poitiers,  216 

Joiin  the  Great,  King  of  Portugal,  228 
ohn  VI.,  of  Portugal,  goes  to   Brazil, 
338,  36' 

John  of  Salisbury,  198 
ohn,    Duke    of  Bedford,    Regent    of ' 
France,  217 

John  the  Fearl-ss,  Duke  of  V  \rgundy,  , 
his  murder,    23 


John,  Duke  of  Calabria,  228 

John  Tzimisk6s,  Eastern  Emperct, 

murders    N;kephoros  Phokas,    142 

his  *ars  and  victories  iu  the  East,  ib. 

defeats  the  Russians,  143 
John  KomnSnos,  Eastern  Enperor,  r» 

vival  of  the  Empire  under,  ilig 

John  Vatatzes,  Emperor  at  Nikaia,  190 
oseph  I.,  Emperor,  reign  and  death  of, 
291 

Joseph  II.,  Emperor,  his  reign  and  re- 
forms, 308 

Joseph  Buonaparte,  King  of  Spain,  333 

Juarez,  President  of  Mexico,  365  ;  Maxi- 
milian killed  by,  ib. 

Jugurtha,  conquered  by  Marius,  73 

Julian,  Caesar  under  Constaniius,  96  : 
campaigns  in  Gaul,  ib.;  his  restora- 
tion, 96  ;  reign  and  death,  97  ;  pagan- 
ism, 98 

Julius  II.,  Pope,  his  share  in  the  League 
of  Cambray,  245  ;  his  Holy  League, 
ib. ;  his  alliance  with  the  Swiss,  ib.  • 
his  policy,  249 

Justinian,  Emperor,  reign  of,  113  ;  his 
buildings  and  code  of-  laws,  if.',  ex- 
tent of  the  Empire  under,  114 

Jutes,  a  Low-Dutch  tribe,  109  ;  found 
the  kingdom  of  Kent,  no 

Juvenal,  84 


»  K. 

Kainardji,  Peace  of,  319 

Kamel,  Egyptian  Sultan,  gives  up  Jeru- 
salem to  Frederick  II.,  187 

Kaminiec,  won  back  to  Poland  by  Au- 
gustus the  Strong,  297 

Karl,  see  Charles 

Karlings,  Frankish  dynasty  of,  in  Ger- 
many and  Gaul,  121,  122  ;  end  of.  in 
Germany,  130 ;  end  of,  in  Western- 
Frankish  kingdom,  132 

Karolingia,  kingdom  of,  129,  131,  140 

Kasan,  Mogul,  197  ;  Russian  conquest 
of,  266,  267 

Kent,  kingdom  of,  founded  by  the 
Jutes,  no,  132;  the  first  Christian 
kingdom  of  the  English,  133 

Kephallenia,  Roman  conquest  of,  65 

Kettler,  Gotthard,  Grand  Master  of 
Livonia,  his  cessions  to  Poland,  266 

Kiev,  Lithuanian  conquest  of,  197 

"  King  of  France,"  title  of  English 
Kings,  216 

Kings,  ways  of  appointing,  167  ;  in- 
crease of  their  power,  237 

Kingship,  common  among  Aryan  na- 
tions, 27,  163  ;  ^mdiially  abolished  i* 
Greece,  28  ;  abolished  in  Hum'!,  5  ^ 


INDEX. 


38? 


Momenes,  King  of  Sparta,  greatness 
of  Sparta  under,  46  ;  defeated  by  the 
Macedonians  and  Achaians,  ib. 

Kleopatra,  Queen  of  Egypt,  her  influ- 
ence over  Antonius,  79  ;  her  death, 
ib. 

Koln,  its  Archbishops  and  Electors, 
170  ;  French  annexation  of,  334 

Komnenos,  Byzantine  dynasty,  156 

Koran,  the,  17 

Korkyra,  24  ;  submits  to  Rome,  63 

Kossuth,  357 

Kynoskephale,  battle  of,  64 

Kyrene,  24 


Labourdqnnais,  French  Governor  of 
Mauritius,  320 

Lamian  war,  the,  42 

languages,  Aryan,  their  common  ori- 
gin, 3,  4  ;  Romance,  106  ;  Teutonic 
or  Dutch,  108  ;  use  of,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  152,  231 ;  growth  of  the  study 
of,  182 

Laon,  capital  of  the  Karlings,  131 

Laps,  remnant  of  non-Aryan  people  in 
Europe,  8,  168 

La  Rochelle,  256 

Latin,  use  of  the  word  in  13th  century, 
190 

Latin  language,  classical  writers  in, 
82 ;  groundwork  of  the  Romance 
tongues,  106;  use  of,  dies  out  in 
Eastern  Empire,  171 ;  continued  in 
the  West,  173 

Latin  franchise,  58 

Latin  provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
distinction  of,  from  Greek  and  Ori- 
ental, 8 1,  82 

Latins,  51 ;  their  league  of  Thirty  cities, 
52 ;  their  alliance  and  wars  with 
Rome,  56,  57 

Lauenburg,  Duchy  of,  joined  to  Den- 
mark, 342 

Lausanne,  Bisphoprick  of,  annexed  by 
Bern,  260 

Law  of  nations,  279 

Leagues,  nature  of,  26;  in  later  Greece, 
44,  if> ;  in  ancient  Italy,  52,  53 

framing  in  the  East,  171  ;  in  the  West, 
172  ;  .revival  of,  in  Italy,  208,  209  ;  in 
i3th,  i4th,  and  isth  centuries,  231 ; 
promoted  by  Leo  X.,  249 ;  in  i6th 
and  I7th  centuries,  278,  279  ;  decline 
of,  in  Thirty  Years'  War,  ib.;  in  i8th 
century,  302,  326 ;  revival  of,  in  Ger- 
many, 347 
•  Leipzig,  battle  of,  332 

Leo  III.,  Tope,  crowns  Charles  the 
Great,  123 


Leo  X.,  Pope,  his  alliance  with  Charles, 
246  ;  his  policy  and  encouragement  ol 
learning,  243 

Leo  the  Isaunan,  Emperor,  defeats  the 
Saracens,  120  ;  Inconoclast  contro- 
versy under,  ib.;  decline  of  the  Im- 
perial power  in  Italy  under,  121 

Leon,  its  growth  and  union  with  Cav 
tile,  154,  162,  195 

Leonidas,  King  of  Sparta,  killed  at 
Thermopylai,  33 

Leopold  I.,  Emperor,  alliance  of,  with 
the  United  Provinces,  284  ;  reign  of, 
390;  gives  up  Hungary  to  his  son 
Joseph,  291 

Leopold  II.,  Emperor,  ^08 ;  his  pre- 
vious rule  as  Grand  Duke  of  Tus- 
cany, 314 

Leopold,  Duke  of  .Austria,  defeated  at 
Morgarten,  317 

Leopold  of  Austriu,  defeated  at  Sem- 
pach,  221 

Leopold,  King  of  Belgium,  361 

Lepanto,  defeat  of  the  Turks  at,  243, 
269 

Lepidus,  Marcus  j*Emtlius,  79 

Leuktra,  defeat  of  the  Spartans  at,  37 

Lewis  I.  (the  Pious),  Emperor,  128 ; 
divisions  of  the  Empire  under,  ib. 

Lewis,  the  German,  extent  of  his  king- 
dom, 129 

Lewis  II.,  Emperor,  his  reign  in  Italy, 
129 

Lewis  the  Child,  last  of  the  Karlings 
in  Germany,  130 

Lewis  IV.,  Emperor,  his  disputed 
election,  203  ;  his  deposition,  ib. ;  his 
alliance  with  Edward  III.  of  Eng- 
land, 215 

Lewis  IV.,  King  of  the  West-Franks, 
133 

Lewis  V.,  last  of  the  Western  Karlings, 
133 

Lewis  VI.,  of  France,  181 

Lewis  VII.,  of  France,  181  ;  goes  on 
the  Second  Crusade,  186 

Lewis  VIII.,  of  France,  the  English 
crown  offered  to,  by  the  Barons,  183 

Lewis  IX.  (Saint),  of  France,  183  • 
growth  of  the  kingdom  under,  183 ; 
his  crusades  and  death,  188 

Lewis  XI.  of  France,  his  annexation 
of  Provence,  218 

Lewis  XII.,  his  Italian  wars,  245  ;  his 
death,  246  ;  his  marriage  with  Anne 
of  Britanny,  253  ;  his  reign  in  France, 
254 

Lewis  XIII.,  246  ;  his  death,  270 

Lewis  XIV.,  accession  of,  270,  883  : 
his  seizure  of  Orange,  272  ;  his  char- 
acter and  absolute  dominion,  383, 


388 


INDEX. 


311;  his  wars  and  annexations,  284, 
•85  ;  bis  devastation  of  the  Palati- 
nate, to.;  his  persecution  of  the 
Protestants,  286  ;  revokes  the  Edict 
of  Nan:es,  ii>.;  his  intrigues  with 
Charles  II.,  288 :  recognizes  the 
claims  of  the  Old  Pretender,  309 

Lewis  XV.  of  France,  his  reigu  and 
wars,  306,  311 

Lewis  XVI.  of  France,  his  reign  and 
execution,  337,  328 

I/ewis  XVIII.  of  France,  his  restora- 
tion and  reign,  333,  350 

Lewis  the  Great,  King  of  Hungary  and 
Poland,  330 

Lewis  II.  of  Hungary,  killed  at  Mo- 
hacs,  268 

Lewis  Buonaparte,  King  of  Holland, 
339 

Ligiiitz,  battle  of,  196 

Liguri.i,  inhabitants  of,  49;  Roman 
conquest  of,  68 

Lincoln.  Abraham,  President  of  United 
States,  366  ;  murder  of,  ib, 

Lithuania,  language  of,  16,  193,  197  ; 
its  conversion,  growth,  and  union 
with  Poland,  230 

Literature,  Roman,  under  the  Empire, 
85;  early  Teutonic,  172  ;  Italian,  be- 
ginning of,  198,  308 

Liudprand,  King  of  the  Lombards,  121 

Livonia,  conquest  of,  by  the  Teutonic 
Knights,  171,  194  ;  Swedish  conquest 
of,  295  ;  given  up  to  Russia,  296 

Livy,  84 

Lodi,  seeks  help  from  Frederick  Bar- 
barossa  against  M  ilan,  177 

Lollards,  the  followers  of  Wyckliffe,  232 

Lombard  League,  178  ;  its  wars  with 
Frederick  Barbarossa,  178 

Lombards,  their  conquests  in  Italy, 
114;  take  Ravenna,  121;  victories 
of  Pippin  over,  122 ;  conquered  by 
Charles  the  Great,  ib. 

Lombardy  and  Venice,  kingdom  of,  337 

London,  Plague  of,  288  ;  Great  Fire  of, 
iA. 

Lorraine,  modern  name  of  Lotharingia, 
129  ;  Duchy  of,  its  relations  to 
Charles  the  Bold,  222  ;  with  France, 
255 ;  settled  on  Stanislaus,  306 ; 
annexed  to  France,  312 ;  part  of 
given  back  to  Germany,  353 

Lorraine,  House  of,  its  relations  with 
Austria,  306 

Lothar  I.,  Emperor,  kingdom  of,  128 

Lothar  IIV  Emperor,  176 

Ix>tharingia,  kingdom  of,  129,  130 

Lothringen,  see  Ixjrraine 

Louis  Philippe,  King  of  the  French, 
reign  ant!  deposition  of,  350 


Louisiana,  French  colonization  in,  ao8t 
304 ;  divided  between  England  ana 
Spain,  225 

liw-Dutch,  fee  Dutch 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  founder  of  the  Jesuit* 
250 

Liibeck,  Commonwealth  of,  174;  waj« 
of,  with  Denmark,  265  ;  annexed  to 
France,  332,  336  ;  joins  the  German 
Confederation,  ib, 

Lucca,  Duchy  of,  337 

Lucius   Sextius,  first  Plebeian  Consul, 

56 

Lucretius,  84 

Luneville,  Peace  of,  330,  334 

Luther,     Martin,     preaching    of,     251  : 

condemned  at  Worms,  252  ;  follower! 

of,  ib.  :  his  death,  ib. 
Luxemburg,  Duchy  of,  361 
Lyt.Ua,  kingdom  of^  conquered  by  Cyrus, 

32 

Lykia,  league  of  its  cities.  41,  67 
Lyons,   Council    of,    179 ;    French    an- 
nexation of,  218 

Lysandros,  Spartan  admiral,  defeats  the- 
Athenians  at  Aigos-potamos,  35 


M. 

Macedonia,  its  inhabitants,  20;  Greek 
colonies  in,  23  ;  not  at  first  counted  as 
Greek,  25,  38 ;  its  relations  with  its 
Kings,  27 ;  its  rise  under  Philip,  38  ; 
invaded  by  the  Gauls,  42,  43  ;  reck- 
oned as  a  Greek  state,  43 ;  its  wars 
with  Rome,  64,  65 :  its  dismember- 
ment and  final  conquest,  65  ;  Slavonic 
settlements  in,  143 

MacMahon.  Marshal,  President  of  the 
French  Republic,  333 

Madras,  English  settlement  at,  299; 
taken  by  the  French,  320 

Maecenas,  Caius  Cilnius,  84 

Magnesia,  defeat  of  Antiochos  at,  66 

Magyars,  tee  Hungarians 

Mahmoud  I.,  Sultan,  319 

Mahmoud  II.,  Sultan,  344,  358 

Mahomet,  born  at  Mecca,  116;  spread 
of  his  religion,  117 

Mahomet  II.,  Sultan,  called  the  Con- 
queror, 226 ;  his  siege  and  conquest 
of  Constantinople,  ib  ;  his  C'nquest 
of  Greece  and  Trebizonil,  ^27  ;  death 
of,  ib. ;  defeated  by  Joliu  Huniades, 
231 

Mahomet  IV.,  Sultan,  297 

Mahomet  Alnohade,  his  defeat  al 
Tolosa,  195 

Mahomet  Ah,  Pasha  of  F-sypt,  358 

Mahra'.tas,  revolt  of  the,  299 


INDEX. 


339 


Mainz,   its  Archbishops    and    Electors, 

170;  French  annexation  of,  334 
Majorian,  Emperor,  102 
Malta,  given   to   the   Knights  of  Saint 

John,   268 ;    Turkish    siege    of,   ib.  ; 

English  possession  of,  341 
Mamelukes,  344 
Manfred,     King     of     Sicily,    crusades 

preached  against,  192 ;  defeated  and 

slain  by  Charles  of  Anjou,  193 
Mantineia,  battle  of,  38 
Manuel  Komnenos,   Eastern   Emperor, 

his  relations  with  Italy,  177,  178;  his 

defeat  by  the  Turks,  189 
Manzikert,  battle  of,  156 
Marathon,  battle  of,  32 
Mardonios,  Persian  General,  defeated 

at  Plataia,  33 
Margaret  of  Flanders,  married  to  Philip, 

Duke  of  1'urgundy,  222 
Margaret,  Queen  of  Norway,  union  of 

the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  under,  229 
Maria,  Queen  of  Portugal  and  Brazil, 

364,  365 
Maria  Theresa  of  Spain,  marries  Lewis 

XIV.,  283 
Maria  Theresa,  Empress  and  Queen  of 

of  Hungary,  her  marriage,  306;  her 

disputed  succession,  307 ;  her  part  in 

the  Seven  Years'   War,   308;   in   the 

partition  of  Poland,  317 
Marignano,  battle  of,  246 
Marius,  Caius,  his  wars  with  Jugurtha 

and  victories  over  the  Teutones,  70, 

73  ;  his  civil  war  with  Sulla,  73,  74 
Mark,  139 
Markos    of   Keryneia,   general   of   the 

Achaian  League,  45 
Marlborough,  Duke  of,  286 
Marseille,  see  Massalia 
Martin  V.,  Pope,  207 
Mary,    Duchess    of    Burgundy,    223; 

marries  Maximilian,  242,  250 
Mary,  daughter  of  Lewis  of  Hungary, 

marries  Siegmund,  230 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  her  marriage, 

reign,  and  beheading,  263 
Mary  I.  of  England  marries  Philip  II. 

of   Spain,  262  ;   loss  of  Calais  under, 

ib. ;   restoration  of  the  Pope's  power 

under,  ib. 
Mary  II.  of  England,  her  marriage  and 

ftlecticn  as  Queen,  288 
Maryland,  277  ;  settlement  of,  278 
Massalia,    Ionian  colony,   24 ;    alliance 

with  Rome,  69 
Massinissa,    King  of  Numidia,  ally  of 

Rome  against  Carthage,  63 
Matilda,  daughter  of  Henry  I.  of  Eng- 
land, marries  Henry  V.,  148  ;  marries 

Geoffrey,  Count  of  Anjou,  153,  180 


Matilda,  daughter  of  Henry  II.,  mar- 
ries Henry  of  Saxony,  178 

Matilda,  daughter  of  Milcolm,  marries 
Henry  I.,  153 

Matthew  Paris,  198,  231 

Matthias  I.,  Emperor,  251 

Maurice,  Emperor,  his  wars  with  th« 
Avars,  115  ;  murdered  by  Phocas,  ib 

Maurice  of  Orange,  leader  of  the  war  in 
the  Netherlands,  258 

Maximian,  joint  Emperor  with  Diocle- 
tian. 93  !.  his  enforced  abdication,  ib.  ; 
persecution  of  the  Christians  under,  94 

Maximilian  I.,  King  of  the  Romans, 
marries  Mary  of  Burgundy,  242,  250 ; 
his  share  in  the  League  of  Cambray, 
245 ;  his  death,  246  ;  his  new  tides, 
250 ;  his  reforms,  251 

Maximilian  II.,  Emperor,  251 

Maximilian,  Emperor  of  Mexico,  365 

Mayence,  see  Mainz 

Mayors  of  the  Palace,  121 

Mazarin,  Cardinal,  270 

Mecca,  birthplace  of  Mahomet,  116 

Medici,  their  power  in  Florence,  212 , 
their  banishments  and  restorations, 
245-248 ;  established  as  Dukes,  248. 

Medici,  the  elder  Cosmo  de',  his  power 
at  Florence,  212 

Midici,  Lorenzo,  dc',  his  power  at  Flor- 
ence, 212 

Medici, Cosmo  de',  Duke  of  Florence  and 
Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  344 

Mediterranean  Sea,  the  centre  of  the 
three  old  continents,  10 ;  Phoenician 
and  Greek  colonies  on,  23,  24 

Megalopolis,  foundation  of,  38 ;  joins 
the  Achaian  League,  44 

Merowingians,  Prankish  dynasty  of,  121 

Merwings,  see  Merowingians 

Messene,  Spartan  conquest  of,  30 ; 
freed  by  Epaminondas,  38 

Metz,  Bishoprickcf,  seized  by  Henry  II. 
of  France,  254  ;  given  back  to  Ger- 
many, 353 

Mexico,  Spanish  conquest  of,  276  ;  rev- 
olution in,  365 

Michael  Palaiologos,  Eastern  Emperor, 
wins  back  Constantinople,  190 

Michael  Romanoff,  Czar  of  Russia,  267 

Middle  Ages,  application  of  the  name, 

x?4 

Miguel,  Don,  of  Portugal,  361 
Milan,  dwelling-place  of  the  Western 
Emperors,  93  :  crowning  place  of  tho 
Emperors  as  Kings  of  Italy,  140  ;  her 
oppression  of  smaller  cities,  177 ; 
Duchy  of,  under  the  Visconti,  aio; 
under  the  House  of  Sforza,  ib. ;  sub- 
mission of  Genoa  to,  211  ;  conquest  of, 
by  Lewis  XII.  of  France,  245  ;  ro 


69° 


INDEX. 


stored  to  House  of  .Sforza,  246;  taken 
by  Francis  I.,  ib.  •  by  Charles  V., 
242  ;  granted  to  his  son  Philip,  347  ; 
part  of  its  territory  ceded  to  Savoy, 
306 ;  Napoleon  Buonaparte  crowned 
at,  331 ;  annexed  by  Austria,  337  ; 
revolts  against  Austria,  355 

Miletos,  flourishing  period  of,  27 

Military  Orders,  171,  186 

Mill,  a  common  Aryan  word,  5 

Milosh,  Obrenowitch,  revolt  of  Servia 
under,  343 

Miltiades,  Athenian  General,  defeats 
the  Persians  at  Marathon,  33 

Minnesingers,  198 

Minorca,  taken  by  the  English,  289 ; 
restored  to  Spain,  310 

Mithridates,  King  of  Pontos,  his  war 
with  Rome,  74  :  defeated  by  Sulla  in 
Greece,  75  ;  his  final  defeat,  ib. 

Moguls,  their  invasions  and  conquests, 
196 ;  their  religion,  ib,  ;  their  dynas- 
ties at  Kasan  and  in  Persia,  107 ; 
overthrow  the  Caliphate  and  the  Sel- 
juk  Turks,  ib. 

Mohacs,  battle  of,  268 

Moldavia,  union  of,  with  Poland,  296 ; 
Russian  influence  in,  320;  beginning 
of  Greek  war  of  independence  in,  357  ; 
its  union  with  Wallachia,  359 

Monstrelet,  his  history  of  the  Hundred 
Years'  War,  231 

Montenegro,  its  relations  with   Turkey,  I 

Morad,  see  Amurath 
Morat,  battle  of,  223 
Morgarten,  battle  of,  220 
Monscos,  driven  out  of  Spain,  244 
Morosini,  Francesco,  conquers  Pelopon- 

ncsos,  294  ;  chosen  Doge,  ib. 
Moscow,  capital  of  Russia,  230 
Mtimmius,  Lucius,  destroys  Corinth,  65 
Murat,  Joachim,  King  of  Naples,  332 
Murten,  see  Morat 
Mustapha  III.,  Sultan,  310 
Mykalfi,  Persians  defeated  at,  33 
Mykene,  its  early  greatness,  20 


N. 

Nabis,  Tyrant  of  Sparta,  64 

Najara,  see  Navarete 

Nancy,  battle  of,  323 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  its  revocation,  286 

Naples,  kingdom  of,  its  separation  frotn 
Sicily,  193  ;  disputes  for  its  succes- 
uoii,  213  ;  conquered  by  Ferdinand 
of  Ai  agon,  242,  245  ;  reigu  of  Joachim 
Mural,  331 


Narbonnr,  conquered  by  Saracen^ 
118 

N  arses,  finally  subdues  the  Goths,  1 14 

Narva,  battle  of,  295 

National  Assembly  of  France,  338  ;  dlt 
solution  of,  351 

National  Convention  of  France,  329 

Navarete,  battle  of,  228 

Navarino,  battle  of,  358 

Navarre,  kingdom  of,  conquered  bj 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  243 

Nelson,  Lord,  331 

Nero,  Emperor,  deposition  and  dea.il 
of,  85 

Nerva,  Emperor,  87 

Netherlands,  their  connexion  with  But 
gundy,  222,  223  ;  with  Spain,  242  ; 
their  revolt,  243,  257  ;  Spanish  pro- 
vinces transferred  to  Austria,  revolts 
in,  319  ;  annexed  to  France,  -434,  339: 
kingdom  of,  339 ;  separation  01 
Southern  provinces  from,  361 

Neufchatel,  its  connexion  with  Prussia, 
290 

New  Amsterdam,  capital  of  New  Nether- 
lands, 30 ;  see  New  York 

New  England,  colony  of,  founded,  877, 
278. 

New  Jersey,  colony  of.  founded,  301 

New  Netherland,  Dutch  colony  of,  278  i 
annexes  Delaware  Bay,  300  ;  English 
conquest  of,  301 

New  Orleans  founded,  301 

New  Rome,  see  Constantinople 

New  York,  origin  of,  301 

Nice,  see  Nikaia  and  Nizza 

Nicholas,  Emperor  of  Russia,  359 

Nicolas  V.,  Pope,  213 

Nikaia,  council  of.  97 ;  capital  of  the 
Seljuk  Turks,  156  ;  Empire  of,  too. 

Nikephoros.  Phokas,  Eastern  Emiwror, 
wins  back  Crete,  142  ;  murder  of, 
ib. 

Nikomedeia,  capital  of  Diocletian,  93 

Nikopolis,  battle  of,  231 

Ninwegen,  Peace  of,  284 

Nizza,  Turkish  siege  of,  269;  annexe  J 
to  France,  352 

Norman  Conquest,  effects  of,  on  En^ 
land  and  France,  151 

Normans,  conquests  in  Italy  and  Sicily, 
»55 

Normandy,  foundation  of  the  Duchy  of 
'36.  137 ;  its  growth,  150 ;  Frend 
conquest  of,  181. 

Northmen,  their  settlements,  134,  136. 

North-German  Confederation,  the,  354 

Nova  Scotia,  origin  of,  301 

Novara,  battle  of,  355 

Novgorod,  becomes  a  republic    193 

Nushirvan,  set  Chosroes 


INDEX. 


39* 


o. 

Ootavius,  see  Augustus 

Odyssey,  see  Homeric  Poems 

Odenathus,  reign  of,  at  Palmyra,  90 

Odo,  Count  cf  Paris,  King  of  the  West 
Franks,  130 ;  does  homage  to  Arnulf, 
ib.  ;  defends  Paris  against  the  North- 
men, 136 

Odoacer,  reign  of,  in  Italy,  103 

Olaf,  King  of  the  Northmen,  his  war  in 
England,  and  conversion,  144 

Oliva,  Treaty  of,  295 

Olynthos,  conquered  by  Philip,  39 

Omar,  Caliph,  117 

Ommiads,  dynasty  of,  at  Damascus, 
125  ;  at  Cordova,  126 

Orange,  Principality  of,  257  ;  seized  by 
Lewis  XIV.,  272 

Orchomenos,  victory  of  Sulla  at,  75 

Orleans,  siege  of,  raised  by  Joan  of 
Arc,  217 

Orleans,  Regent  Duke  of,  309 

Oscans,  51 

Ostend,  siege  of,  258 

Othman,  Caliph,  125 

Othman  gives  his  name  to  the  Ottoman 
Turks,  224 

Otho,  Emperor,  86 

Otho  of  Bavaria,  King  of  Greece,  driven 
out,  358 

Otranto,  taken  by  the  Turks,  227 

Otto  the  Great,  defeats  the  Magyars, 
139 ;  subdues  Berenger,  King  of 
Italy,  140 ;  crowned  Emperor,  ib.  ; 
death  of,  141  ;  marries  Edith,  daugh- 
ter of  Edward  the  Elder,  144 

Otto  II.,  Emperor,  his  wars  with  the 
Danes,  141 

Otto  III.,  Emperor,  called  the  Wonder 
of  the  World,  141 

Otto  IV.,  Emperor,  179 

Ottocar  IV.,  Emperor,  King  of  Bohe- 
mia, 202 

Ottoman  Turks,  beginning  and  growth 
of  their  dominion,  225,  243  ;  their  ad- 
vance in  Europe,  225  ;  their  levy  of 
tribute-children,  ib. ;  take  Constanti- 
nople, 226  ;  take  Otranto,  237  ;  their 
defeat  at  Lepanti  243,  269  ;  greatness 
of,  under  Suleiman  the  Law-giver, 
a68,  269  ;  their  wars  with  Persia,  268; 
with  Hungary  and  the  Empire,  290, 
291  ;  with  Venice,  293,  294  ;  with 
Poland,  296;  their  decline,  297,319, 
343  ;  their  wars  with  Russia,  347,  343. 
344)  358,  359 ;  revolts  of  subject  na 
tions  aga~.ns%  343,  357 ;  wars  with 
France,  3*  ^  ;  with  Egypt,  358 

Ovid,  84 

OnfurJ,  rise   >f  the  University,  198 


P. 

Paganus,  meaning  of  the  word,  98 

Palaiologos,  dynasty  of,  191 

Palmyra,    kingdom   of,    destroyed    by 

Aurelian,  90 

Palatine,  first  Roman  settlement  on,  53 
Palatinate,  ravaged  by  Lewis  XIV.,  285 
Paoli,  the,  leaders  of  the  Corsican  revolt 

from  Genoa,  312 
Papists,  origin  of  the  name,  241 
Paris,  capital  of  the  Duchy  of  France, 

131  ;  of  the  kingdom  of  France,  132 ; 

siege  of,  136 ;  rise  of  the  University, 

198 ;    peace  of,    310 ;    taken  by  th« 

Allies,  332  ;  German  siege  of,  352 
Parliament,  English,  184,  185 
Parliament  of  Paris,  humiliation  of,  by 

Lewis  XIV.,  283 
Parthenon,  294 
Parthia,     kingdom     of,     founded    by 

Arsakes,  64 ;  wars  with  Rome,  75,  87, 

90  ;  revolt  of  the  Persians  from,  90 
Passarowitz,  Peace  of,  291,  294 
Patrician,  tide  of,  122 
Patricians  at  Rome,  55.  71,  72 
Paul  IV.,  Pope,  war  of  Philip  II.  with, 

243 
Paul,   Emperor  of  Russia,  murdered, 

342 
Paullus,    Lucius  ./Emilius,    defeats  the 

Macedonians  at  Pydna,  6; 
Pavia,  battle  of,  246 
Pedro,    King  of  Aragon,   defeated  by 

Simon  of  Montfort,  192 
Pedro  of  Aragon,  King  of  the  Island  cf 

Sicily,  193 

Pedro   the  Cruel,  King  of  Castile,  ex- 
pulsion and  restoration  of,  227,  228 
Pedro,  Dom,   Emperor  of  Brazil,  319  ; 

King  and  Regent  of  Portugal,  360 
Pedro,  II.,  of  Hrazil,  366 
Peisistratos,  Tyrant  of  Athens,  29 
Pelopidas,  greatness  of  Thebes  under, 

Peloponnesian  War,  34 

Peloponngsos,  Turkish  conquest  of,  227; 
Venetian  conquest  of,  294 ;  recon- 
.quered  by  Turks,  ib. 

Pennsylvania,  colony  of,  founded,  301 

Penn,  William,  colonizes  Pennsylvania, 
301 

Pergamos,  kingdom  of,  41,  66 ;  its  great- 
ness under  Eumenes,  67  ;  becomes  a 
Roman  province,  ib. 

Perikles,  his  greatness  at  Athens,  34 : 
effect  of  his  influence  on  the  govern- 
ment, ib. 

Perseus,  King  of  Macedonia,  65 

Persia,  growth  of,  under  Cyrus,  31  ; 
wars  and  alliance  with  the  Greek* 


392 


INDEX. 


33-35 ;  revival  of,  under  Artaxcrxes, 
90;  wars  with  Rome,  93,  112,  184; 
greatness  of,  under  the  two  Chosrocs, 
114,  115;  victories  of  Heraclius  over, 
116;  Saracen  conquest  of,  119;  rise 
of  Turkish  dynasties  in,  156  ;  Mogul 
dynasty  in,  197  ;  beginning  of  the 
modern  kingdom,  268  ;  wars  with  the 
Ottomans,  ib.\  with  Russia,  342 

Persians,  their  Aryan  origin,  9,  31 

Peru,  Spanish  conquest  of,  276 

Peter,  King  of  Aragon,  Castile,  and 
Portugal,  see  Pedro 

Peter  the  Hermit,  preaches  the  First 
Crusade,  157 

Peter  the  Great,  rise  of  Russia  under, 
315  ;  his  title  and  policy,  316 

Peter  III.  of  Russia,  murder  of,  316 

Pharsalos,  battle  of,  78 

Philip  II.  of  Macedonia,  rise  of  Mace- 
donia under,  38  ;  conquers  Olynthos, 
39  ;  his  supremacy  in  Greece,  and. 
death,  ib. 

Philip  V.  of  Macedonia,  his  wars  with 
Rome,  and  defeat  at  Kynoskephale, 

** 

Philip  Augustus  of  France,  his  crusade, 
181,  187  ;  annexes  Normandy,  181  ; 
\s  ins  the  battle  of  Bouvines.  182 

Philip  the  Fair  of  France,  founds  the 
Estates  of  France,  184  ;  his  quarrel 
with  Boniface  VIII.,  205 ;  subservi- 
ence of  the  Popes  to,  to.  ;  destroys 
the  Templars,  205  ;  seizes  Aquitaine, 
ai£  ;  annexes  Lyons,  218 

Philip  1.  of  Castile,  his  descent  and 
marriage,  242 

Philip  II.  of  Spain,  241  :  his  persecu- 
tion of  the  Moors,  244  ;  marries  Mary 
of  England,  262 

Philip  III.  of  Spain,  decline  of  the 
Spanish  power  under,  243  ;  expels 
the  Moriscos,  244 

Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  loses  Portugal, 
243  ;  his  wars  with  France,  ib. 

Philip  V.  oi  Spain,  disputed  succession 
of,  286,  305 

Philip  of  Valois,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
marries  Margaret  of  Flanders,  222 

Philip  the  Good,  Puke  of  Burgundy, 
growth  of  the  Duchy  under,  223 

Philip  of  Swabia,  disputes  the  crown 
with  Otto  of  Saxony,  179 

Philippi,  battle  of.  79 

Philippine  Islands,  Spanish  settlements 
in,  274 

PhilopoimSn,  General  of  the  Achian 
League,  45,64 

Phocas,  Emperor,  usurpation  and  death 
of,  115 

Phoenicians,  their  origin  and   colonies, 


22  ;    their    relations   to    the    Greek% 

Picts,  in  Britain  invade  the  Hi-man 
province,  108 

Piedmont  French  annexation  of,  329  ; 
recovered  by  King  of  Sardinia,  337; 
Genoa  joined  to,  ib.  ;  despotic  gcv 
eminent  in,  338 

Pippin,  King  Jf  the  Franks,  his  wars 
with  the  Lombards,  122 

Pisa,,  subject  to  Florence,  116;  con- 
quers Sardinia,  154;  its  Ghibellinism, 
177  :  Council  of,  207 

Pitt,  William,  Earl  of  Chatham,  310 

Pius  II.,  his  writings  and  attempted 
crusade,  213 

Pius  VII.,  Pope,  337 

Pius  IX.,  Pope,  355,  356 

Pizarro,  Francesco,  his  conquest  of  Peru, 
276 

Plassy,  battle  of,  321 

Plataia  sends  help  to  the  Athenians  at 
Marathon,  32 

Plebeians  at  Rome,  their  origin,  55;  thei* 
disputes  with  the  Patricians,  56,  71 

Podolia,  given  up  to  the  Turks,  296 

Poitiers,  batde  of,  215 

Poland,  rise  of,  139  ;  its  conversion,  168, 
193;  Mogul  invasion  of,  196;  its 
union  with  Lithuania.  230  ;  its  great- 
ness under  the  Jagellons,  265  ;  its 
wars  with  Sweden  and  Russia.  266, 
207  ;  its  crown  made  purely  elective, 
af-6  ;  its  decline,  267,  296  :  partitions 
of,  317  ;  new  kingdom  of,  united  'o 
Russia,  343  ;  revolts  of,  against 
Russia,  359.  360 

Poles,  Slavonic  people,  15,  127 

Polish  Election,  war  of  the,  306 

Polybios,  history  of,  66 

Pombal,  Marquess  of,  313 

Pomerauia,  shifting  of  territory  in,  be- 
tween Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Prus- 
sia, 277,  206 

Pompeius,  Cnxus,  his  eastern  wars,  75; 
his  civil  war  with  Caesar,  77  ;  his 
defeat  at  Pharsalos  and  death,  78 

Pondicherry,  321 

Pontos,  kingdom  of,  42 

Popes,  beginning  of  their  power,  120 ; 
disputed  elections  of,  147,  178,  207  ; 
their  disputes  with  the  Emperors, 
148,  150 ;  theory  of  their  power,  179, 
203,  206 ;  their  claim  to  dispose  of 
kingdoms,  185  ;  seat  of,  removed  to 
Avignon.  205  ;  brought  back  to  Rome, 
206  ;  their  position  in  the  isth  cen- 
tury, 208 ;  increase  of  their  tempotdi 
power,  212,  213,  248  ;  discontent  with, 
238,  239,  250  ;  their  character  tn  tha 
i6th  century,  249,  250;  end  ot  theii 


INDEX. 


393 


authority  in  England,  262 ;  their 
character  in  the  i8th  century,  314 ; 
end  of  tl  eir  temporal  power,  356 

Portugal,  wars  of  her  Kings  with  the 
Mahometans,  195 ,  growth  of  her 
power,  228  ;  annexed  to  Spain,  243  ; 
restoration  of,  ib.  ;  her  settlements  in 
Africa  and  Indiaj  274 ;  her  share  in 
the  war  of  the  Spanish  Succession, 
292  ;  attack  of  Spain  and  France  on, 
313 ,  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from, 
ib.  ;  liberation  of,  338  ;  revolutions  and 
civil  wars  in,  361 

Posen,  Grand  Duchy  of,  given  back  to 
Prussia,  343 

Pragmatic  Sanction,  the,  305 

Pressburg,  Treaty  of,  334 

Pretender,  the  Old,  fee  James  Francis 
Edward  Stuart 

Pretender,  the  Young,  tee  Charles  Ed- 
ward Stuart 

Printing,  invention  of,  200 

Protestant,  origin  of  the  name,  241, 
252 

Provence,  origin  of  the  name,  69 ; 
county  of,  a  fief  of  the  Empire,  192  ; 
held  by  Charles  of  Anjou,  ib.  ;  French 
annexation  of,  218 

Provinces,  Roman,  condition  of,  61  : 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Oriental,  distinc- 
tion of,  8 1 

Provincials,  Roman,  61,  71 

Prussia,  Gregory  IX.  preaches  a  cru- 
sade against,  194;  conquered  by  the 
Teutonic  Knights,  ib.  ;  Western  Prus- 
sia annexed  to  Poland,  230 ;  Duchy 
and  kingdom  of,  266 ;  growth  of,  290  ; 
Silesia  annexed  to,  307  ;  its  share  in 
the  partitions  of  Poland,  317 ;  dis- 
membered by  Buonaparte,  332  ;  war 
with  France,  352-354^ ;  forms  the  Zoll- 
verein,  353  ;  revolutions  in,  ib.  ;  war 
with  Austria,  354 ;  annexes  Sleswick 
and  Holstein,  362 

Ptolemies,  kingdom  of  the,  in  Egypt,  41 

Pultpwa,  Charles  XII.  defeated  at,  295 

Punic,  Latin  form  of  Phoenician,  60 

Pydna,  battle  of,  65 

Pyrenees,  Peace  of  the,  288 

Pyrrhos,  King  of  Epeiros,  killed  at 
Argos,  43 ;  helps  the  Tarentines 
against  Rome,  58  ;  goes  into  Sicily, 
59  ;  defeated  by  the  Romans  at  Bcn- 
eventum,  ib. 


Q. 

8uadmple  Alliance,  the,  305 
uebec  taken  by  the  English,  329 


Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  founds  the  colony 
of  Virginia,  277 

Radstadt,  treaty  of,  286 

Ravenna,  Exarchate  of,  120  ;  taken  by 
the  Lombards,  121 ;  won  back  by 
Pippin,  122  ;  battle  of,  245 

Raymond,  Count  of  Toulouse,  crusade 
preached  against,  192 

Reformation,  the,  chief  causes  of,  238, 
239  :  different  forms  of  in  different 
countries,  240 

Regulus,  Marcus  Atilius,  61 

Reign  of  Terror,  the,  in  France,  329 

Ren^,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  helped  by  the 
Swiss  League,  223 

Rene,  King  of  Sicily,  and  Count  of 
Provence,  228 

Rhine,  the,  boundary  of  the  Roman 
province  of  Gaul,  77  ;  Confederation 
of  the,  334 

Rhodes,  commonwealth  of,  42  ;  held  by 
the_  Knights  of  St.  John,  227 ;  the 
Knights  driven  out  of,  268 

Richard  I.  of  England,  his  crusade,  i8t, 
187 

Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall,  elected  King 
of  the  Romans,  201 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  growth  of  the 
royal  power  under,  256 ;  his  share  in 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  270 

Rienzi,  Cola  di,  his  Tribuneship,  212 

Robert,  Duke  of  the  French,  his  grant 
to  Rolf,  137 

Robert,  King  of  Naples,  213 

Robert  of  Geneva,  or  Clement  VII., 
anti-pope  at  Avignon,  206 

Robert  Wiscard,  his  conquests  in 
Southern  Italy,  154 

Robespierre,  329 

Roger  II.,  King  of  Sicily,  155  :  league 
of  East  and  West  against,  177 

Roger  Bacon,  198 

Rolf,  first  Duke  of  die  Nornams,  his 
settlement  and  baptism,  137 

Roman  Empire,  greatest  extent  of  the 
Empire,  17 ;  beginning  of,  79  ;  extent 
of,  So,  83 ;  distinction  of  its  Latin, 
Greek,  and  Oriental  provinces,  81  : 
nature  of  its  dominion,  82,  87  ;  all  its 
inhabitants  become  Romans,  82,  89 ; 
rule  of,  passes  from  the  Caesarian 
family,  86  ;  Emperors  chosen  by  the 
army,  88  ;  the  Tyrants,  89 ;  wars 
with  the  Persians  and  Germans,  90, 
91 ;  threatened  by  the  Goths,  ib.  ; 
growth  and  persecutions  of  Chris- 
tianity in,  92,  94 ;  division  of,  under 
Diocletian,  93 ;  united  under  Con- 
stantine,  94  ;  capital  fixed  at  Constan- 


594 


INDEX. 


vie,  96;  cnanges  under  Constan- 
tine  and  his  sons,  ib. ;  establishment 
of  ( Ihristianity  in,  97,  99;  various 
forms  of  Christianity  in,  98 ;  Teu- 
tonic settlements  in,  99,  100 ;  re- 
united under  Zeno,  104  ;  continued  in 
the  East,  in,  113;  its  extent  under 
Justinian,  114  ;  wars  with  Avars  and 
Persians,  115  ;  with  the  Saracens, 
22  ;  decline  of  its  power  in  Italy,  120  ; 
its  final  division,  123,  124 

Roman  Law,  see  Civil  Law 

Roman  Catholics,  origin  of  the  name, 
241 

Romance  niti<  ns,  origin  of,   105  ;  his- 
tory of  their  languages,  106,  172 

Romansch,  language,  107 

Rome,  the  centre  of  European  history, 
16-18  ;  her  probable  origin,  53  ; 
character  of  her  history,  53,  54,  55  ; 
her  kings,  54 ;  dynasty  of  the  Tar- 
quinii,  ib.  ;  the  commonwealth,  55, 
56;  makes  a  treaty  with  Carthage, 
56  ,  taken  by  the  Gauls,  ib.  ;  gradual 
ronquest  of  Italy,  56,  59  ;  war  of,  with 
Pyrrhos,  58 ;  condition  of  the  Italian 
States  under,  59 :  first  wars  with 
Carthage,  60,  63  ;  her  provinces,  61  ; 
takes  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  62 ; 
second  war  with  Carthage,  63  ;  her 
first  possessions  beyond  the  Hadriatic, 
ib.  ;  first  and  second  wars  with  Mace- 
donia, 64 ;  conquest  of  /*Etolia,  65  ; 
final  conquest  of  Macedonia,  ib.  ;  war 
with  Andochos,  66  ;  her  first  province 
beyond  the  ./Egean,  67  ;  conquest  of 
Cisalpine  Gaul,  67,  68  ;  of  Liguria 
and  Venetia,  68  ;  of  Spain,  68,  69  ; 
her  first  province  in  Transalpine  Gaul, 
69,  70  ;  invasions  of  the  Cimbri  and 
:''>nes,  70;  relations  with  Egypt, 
71  ;  her  great  power  the  cause  of_her 
final  fall,  ib.  ;  her  constitution,  ib.  ; 
internal  disputes,  71,  72  ;  revolt  and 
submission  of  the  allies,  73,  74  ;  first 
civil  war,  73  ;  wars  with  Mithridates, 
74,  75  :  conquest  of  the  kingdom  of 
Pontos,  75  ;  conquest  of  Syria,  ib.  ; 
first  dealings  with  Parthia,  ib.  ;  in- 
ternal disputes,  76 ;  conquest  of 
Transalpine  Gaul,  76,  77  ;  first  deal- 
ings with  liritain,  77:  civil  wars,  77, 
79  ;  conquest  of  Egypt,  79  ;  begin- 
ning of  the  Empire,  ib.  \  her  position 
under  the  Emperors,  82  ;  literature 
and  art  of,  83  ;  ceases  to  be  the  seat 
of  go  /eminent,  93  ;  taken  by  Alaric, 
joi  ;  growth  of  the  Papal  power,  120, 
148  ;  decline  of  the  Imperial  power, 
X2I  ;  threatened  by  the  Iximbards, 
ib.  ;  saved  by  Pippin,  122  ;  separated 


from  the  Eastern  Empire,  123  . 
crowning  place  of  the  \\\v,tern  K'n- 
perors,  125  ;  return  of  the  Poj.es  to. 
from  Avignon,  206 :  revolution  ol 
Rienzi  at,  212  ;  sack  of,  247  ;  held  bv 
the  French,  355  ;  the  capital  of  unite! 
Italy,  356 

Rouen,  settlement  of  Rolf  at,  137 
taken  by  Henry  V.  of  England,  217 

Rousillon,  shiftings  of,  between  Eranc« 
and  Aragon,  228,  243,  272 
".  325 

Rudolf  of  Swabia,  his  election  and 
death,  148 

Rudolf  of  Habsburg,  elected  King, 
202;  not  crowned  Emperor,//'.;  hii 
reign,  »'/;.;  grants  the  Duchy  of  Au» 
tria  to  his  son  Albert,  ib. 

Rudolf  II.,  Emperor,  251 

Rudolf,  last  King  of  Burgundy,  147 

Russia,  state  of,  in  the  I3lh  century, 
193  ;  subjection  of,  to  the  M 
197 ;  Lithuanian  conquest  of  the 
Western  provinces  of,  ib. ;  deliverance 
of,  from  the  Moguls,  230  ;  growth  of, 
266,  267 ;  her  conquest  ot  Siberia, 
274  :  greatness  of,  under  Peter  the 
Great,  315,  316 ;  her  conquest  of 
Crim  Tartary,  316 ;  share  of,  in  the 
partitions  of  Poland,  317  ;  her  an- 
nexations of  Carelia,  ib. ;  dealings 
with  the  nations  subject  to  the  Turks, 
319,  320,  324  ;  Buonaparte's  invasion 
ot,  332  ;  wars  with  Sweden,  Tur- 
key, and  Persia,  342,  350  ;  French  in- 
vasion of,  343  ;  kingdom  of  Poland 
united  with,  ib.\  her  new  Euroj.u.m 
position,  358  ;  revolts  of  the  Poles 
against,  359,  360  ;  abolition  of  serfage 
in,  360 

Russians,  a  Slavonic  people,  invada 
the  Eastern  Empire,  143  ;  defeated 
by  John  Tzimiskes,  ib.;  conversion 
Of,  to  Christianity,  145 

Ryswick,  Peace  of,  285 


S. 


•aguntum,  taken  by  Hannibal,  fa 

Saint  Domingo,  see  Hayti 

Saint  Helena,  Buonaparte  banished  to, 
3.33 

Saint  John,  knights  of,  tee  Hospital- 
lers 

saint  Petersburg,  foundation  of,  315 

saint  Qucntin,  battle  of,  254 

Saint  Sophia,  church  of,  built  by  Ju» 
tiniiin,  113 

Saladm  puts  down  the  pcwcr  of  thf 
Fatiiniic..,  187;  ukes  Jerusalem,  it 


INDEX. 


395 


Salamis,  battle  of,  33 

Saluzzo,  joined  to  Savoy,  261 

Samnites,  their  wars  with  Rome,  57  ; 
join  the  Marian  party,  73  ;  finally 
conquered  by  Sulla,  74 

San  Marino,  Commonwealth  of,  174, 
248,  337 

Saracens,  rise  of,  116  ;  accept  the  doc- 
trine of  Mahomet,  117;  their  con- 
quests from  the  Empire  and  the  Goths, 
118  ;  driven  out  of  Gaul,  119  ;  di- 
vision of  their  Empire,  ib. ;  their  con- 
quest of  Persia,  ib.;  repulsed  from 
Constantinople,  120 

Sardinia,  its  ancient  inhabitants,  49  ; 
its  relations  to  Carthage  and  Rome, 
59,  62  ;  recovered  from  the  Saracens 
by  Pisa,  154  ;  reconquered  by  Spain, 
305  ;  Dukes  of  Savoy  become  Kings 
of,  305  ;  rule  of  the  Carignano  dynasty 
i")  355  :  wars  of,  with  Austria,  ib., 
356 

Sassanides,  dynasty  of,  in  Persia,  90 

Savoy,  Counts  and  Dukes  of,  219,  259  ; 
their  relations  with  Switzerland,  260  ; 
their  loss  and  gain  of  territory,  261; 
growth  of  their  power,  292,  306,  314 ; 
become  Kings  of  Sicily,  293,  compari- 
son of  Savoy  and  Sweden,  296 ; 
become  Kings  of  Sardinia,  305  ;  neu- 
trality of  the  northern  part  guaranteed, 
34°>  352  ;  annexed  to  France,  352 

Saxons,  their  invasion  and  settlement 
in  Britain,  109,  no;  their  settlements 
in  Gaul,  109 ;  the  English  so-called 
by  the  Celts,  ib. 

Saxons,  Old,  conquered  and  converted 
by  Charles  the  Great,  127;  revolt 
against  Henry  IV.,  148 

Saxony,  Duchy  of,  broken  up,  178 ; 
alliance  of,  with  Prussia,  335  ;  electo- 
rate and  kingdom  of,  ib. 

Scandinavia,  conversion  of,  145,  168 ; 
union  of  the  kingdoms  of,  229 ,  wars 
of,  with  the  Hanseatic  League,  ib. 

Schaffhausen,  canton  of,  formed,  260 

Schwyz  gives  its  name  to  the  League, 
220 

Scipio,  Lucius  Cornelius,  defeats  An- 
tiochos  at  Magnesia.  66 

Scipio.  Publius  Cornelius,  defeats  Han- 
nibal at  Zama,  62 

Scipio,  Publius  Cornelius  ^Kmilianus, 
takes  Carthage,  63 ;  takes  Numan- 
tia,  69 

Scotland,  settlement  of  the  Northmen 
in,  134  ;  position  of  the  Kingdom, 
163 ;  dealings  of,  with  England  and 
France  in  the  I4th  century,  214,  215  ; 
her  independence  acknowledged, 
214 ;  Reformation  in,  240,  263  •  her 


Kings  become  Kings  of  England, 
264 ;  union  of,  with  England,  287  ; 
effects  of  the  Revolution  in,  288  ;  fin- 
al union  with  England,  289 

Scots  in  Ireland  and  Northern  Britain, 
108 ;  invade  the  Roman  Province 
133 ;  their  early  relations  to  the 
English,  135;  serve  "in  French 
armies,  215 

Seleukids,  extent  and  decline  of.  the!/ 
kingom,  41,  46 

Sehikos,  his  kingdom,  41 

Selim  the  Inflexible,  Sultan,  conquests 
of,  268 

Selim  II.,  Sultan,  269  ;  Sclim  III.,  Sul- 
ton,  343  !  murder  of,  344 

Seljuk  Turks,  rise,  growth  and  decay 
of  their  power,  155,  156 

Semitic  nations,  their  history,  7  :  then 
influence  on  religion,  ib. 

Sempach,  battle  of,  221 

Senlac  see,  Hastings, 

Septimania,  see  Narbonne 

Serfage,  general  abolition  of,  in  346; 
•Russia,  ib.,  359 

Sertorius,  revolt  of,  in  Spain,  72 

Servia.  Turkish  conquest  of,  225 ;  re 
volts  and  independence  of,  343,  357 

Seven  Weeks'  War,  the,  354 

Seven  Years'  War.  the,  308 

Severus,  Alexander,  Emperor,  89; 
his  wars  with  Persia,  90 

Severus,  Septimius,  Emperor,  88 

Seville,  won  back  from  the  Mohame 
tans  by  Ferdinand  III.,  195 

Sforza  Francesco,  Duke  of  Milan,  210 

Shah  Ismael,  founder  of  the  Sophis  in 
Persia,  268 

Shah  Jehan,  Mogul  Emperor,  399 

Siberia,    Russian   conquest  of,  274 

Sicily,  its  inhabitants,  20,  25 ;  Phocni 
cian  and  Greek  settlements  in,  23, 
24  ;  their  wars,  24,  59  ;  origin  of  its 
name,  51  ;  Pyrrhos  helps  the  Greeks 
against  the  Carthaginians,  59  ;  bat- 
tle-field of  the  Aryan  and  Semitic 
races,  60 ;  becomes  a  Roman  prov- 
ince, 61,  62 ;  Saracen  conquest  oi 
126 ;  Norman  conquest  of,  155  ; 
kingdom  of,  ib.  ;  union  with  the 
Empire,  178;  reign  of  Frederick  II. 
in,  179 :  conquered  by  Charles  of 
Anjou,  193 ;  revolt  and  separation 
of  the  island,  ib. ;  united  to  Aragon, 
214,  228;  to  Savoy,  293  ;  reunited, 
to  Naples,  306,  314 ;  delivered  by 
Garibaldi,  356 

Siculi,  give  their  name  to  Sicily,  51 

Siegtnund,  Emperor,  his  dominions, 
20;:  his  real  fur  ecclesiastical  ie- 
fouualwn,  204,  207;  mairics  .VJari 


INDEX. 


of  Hungary,  330 ;    defeated  by  Ba- 
jazet  at  Nikopolis,  331 

Siegmund,  Duke  of  Austria,  223 

Sienna,  annexed  to  the  Duchy  of 
Florence,  248 

Sigismund  I.,  of  Poland,  abolishes 
the  Teutonic  order,  266 

Silesia  conquered  by  Frederick  the 
Great,  307 

Sikyon,  joins  the  Achaian  League,  ib. 

Simon  of  Monlfort  the  elder,  his 
crusade  against  Toulouse,  192 

Simon  of  Montfort,  Earl  of  Leicester, 
his  constitution  of  Parliament,  184, 
185  ;  killed  at  Evesham,  185 

Sixtus  IV.,  Pope,  213 

Sixtus  V.,  Pope,  reign  of,  250 

Slave,  meaning  of  the  word,  15 

Slaves,  third  Aryan  swarm  in  Central 
Europe,  15  ;  dealings  of  the  German 
kings  with,  38  ;  their  settlements  in 
the  Eastern  Empire,  142,  143  ;  their 
conversion  to  Christianity,  143 ;  re- 
volts of,  against  the  Turks,  319,  324 

Slavery,  abolition  of,  in  British  colonies, 
366;  in  United  States,  366 

Sleswick,  Duchy  of,  its  relations  with 
Denmark,  229,  318,  366 ;  annexed  to 
Prussia,  ib. 

Smalcaldic  League,  the,  252 

Sobieski,  John,  King  of  Poland,  de- 
livers Vienna  from  the  Turks,  291  ; 
his  election,  206 ;  his  Turkish  vic- 
tories, ib. ;  his  death,  297 

Solon,  lawgiver  of  Athens,  30 ;  his 
poems,  31 

Sophis,  dynasty  of,  In  Persia,  268 

Sophocles,  34 

Spain,  remains  of  non-Aryan  people  in, 
8,  13,  68  ;  its  geographical  character, 
ii  ;  Celtic  settlements  in,  13,  68  ; 
Phoenician  and  Greek  settlements  in, 
23,  24,  68  ;  Carthaginian  dominion 
in,  62 ;  Roman  conquest  of,  62,  68, 
69,  83  ;  Gothic  kingdom  in,  101,  103, 
105  ;  settlement  of  the  Vandals  in, 
104  ;  growth  of  the  Romance  language 
in,  106;  southern  part  won  back  to 
the  Empire,  114;  conquered  by  the 
Saracens,  118  ;  growth  and  decline  of 
their  power,  154  ;  end  of  the  Western 
Caliphate  in,  ib. :  advance  of  the 
Christian  states,  162  ;  growth  of  new 
Mahometan  dynasties  in,  195  ;  end 
of  the  Mahommetan  power,  241  ; 
under  Ferdinand  and  Isabel,  242  ; 
under  Charles  the  Fifth,  ib. ;  decline 
under  his  successors,  243,  244 ;  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Moriscos,  244  ;  rivalry 
with  France,  ii. ;  wars  with  Elizabeth 
of  England,  263  ;  with  France,  27* 


her  colonies,  274,  276 :  aggression* 
of  Lewis  XIV.  on,  283  ;  disput  u  ai 
to  her  succession,  292  ;  temporary 
revival  of  her  power,  305,  313  ;  alli- 
ance with  France  against  England 
and  Portugal,  313  ;  expulsion  ol 
Jesuits  from,  ii.;  dealings  of  Buona- 
parte with,  338 ;  Peninsular  war, 
il>,',  later  revolutions  and  civil  wan 
in,  360 

Spanish  Succession,  war  of  the,  285 

Sparta,  her  conquest  of  MessSne,  30 : 
joins  with  Athens  against  Xerxes. 
33 ;  helps  to  defeat  Mardomos  at 
Plataia,  it.;  war  of,  with  Athens, 
34 ;  gives  help  to  Syracuse,  34  ;  over- 
comes Athens,  it. ;  her  supremacy  in 
Greece,  36  ;  makes  war  upon  Persia, 
it.;  wars  with  Athens  and  Thebes, 
37;  destroys  Olynthos,  it.;  in  alli- 
ance with  Athens,  38  ;  wars  with  the 
Achaian  League,  46 

Speyer,  Diet  of,  252 

Spice  Islands,  Dutch  settlements,  208  ; 
massacre  of  Englishmen  in,  ib. 

Spinola,  Marques,  his  siege  of  Ostend, 
258 

Stadholder,  office  of,  294  ;  abolished. 
294,  295 

Stanislaus  Leszczynski  made  King  ol 
Poland  by  Charles  XII.,  297 ;  his 
second  election,  306  ;  Duchy  of  Ix>r- 
rain  settled  on.  it. 

States  General  of  France  becomes  the 
National  Assembly,  328 

Stephen  III.,  Pope,  asks  help  of  Pippin, 

122 

Stilicho,  Roman  general,  checks  th» 
West-Goths,  101 

Stralsund,  siege  of,  295 

Strassburg  seized  by  Lewis  XIV.,  284 

Suleiman  the  Lawgiver,  Sultan,  be- 
sieges Vienna,  252  ;  wars  and  con- 
quests of,  268,  269 

Suliots     defend     their     independence 


against  the  Turks,  344 
Sulla,    - 


Sulla,  Lucius  Cornelius,  his  civil  war 
with  Marius,  73  ;  his  dictatorship, 
74  ;  his  victories  in  Greece  overMitn- 
ridates,  75 

Suraj-ad-dowla  takes  Calcutta,  321  : 
defeated  at  Plassy,  it. 

Surat,  first  English  settlement  at,  299 

Sweden,  separated  from  Denipark, 
264  ;  her  wars  with  Poland,  266  ;  her 
share  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and 
relations  to  the  Empire,  271  ;  be- 
comes an  absolute  monarchy,  295  ; 
greatest  extent  of  her  power,  ib.: 
compared  with  Savoy,  296  ;  her  lost 
cf  power  and  territory,  117 ;  union 


INDEX. 


39) 


of  Norway  with,  342 ;  reforms  in, 
363 

Swegen,  son  of  Harold  Blaatand,  his 
apostasy,  conquest  of  England,  and 
death,  144 

Sweyn,  see  Swegen 

Swiss,  serve  in  foreign  armies,  223 ; 
their  infantry,  232 ;  their  defeat  at 
Mangnana,  246 

Swiss  Confederation,  the,  340 

Swiss  League,  beginning  of  the,  219; 
its  extension,  220 ;  relation  of,  to  the 
Empire,  France,  and  Austria,  ib.; 
war  of,  with  Charles  the  Bold,  223 ; 
effects  of  the  Burgundian  war  on, 
ib.;  growth  of  its  power,  259;  see 
Switzerland 

Switzerland,  beginning  and  growth  of 
the  League,  219,  220 ;  origin  of  the 
name,  ib. ;  their  relations  to  Austria 
and  the  Empire,  ib.  ;  the  Burgun- 
dian war  and  its  effects,  223 ; 
growth  of  the  Confederation  in, 
259  ;  annexations  of,  ib.  ;  admission 
of  the  new  Cantons,  ib.  ;  the  Refor- 
mation in,  260 ;  relations  with  the 
Dukes  of  Savony,  ib.  ;  formal  ac- 
knowledgement of  her  independence, 
271 ;  relations  to  the  French  Re- 
public and  Empire,  330;  the  Helve- 
tic Republic  and  act  of  mediation, 
339 ;  the  Swiss  Confederation,  340 ; 
war  of  the  Catholic  and  Protestant 
cantons  in,  362  ;  establishment  and 
reform  of  the  Federal  constitution  in, 
ib. 

Swords,  Knights  of,  joined  with  the 
Teutonic  Knights,  194 

Sybaris,  flourishing  period  of,  27 

Syracuse,  flourishing  period  of,  27; 
Athenian  siege  of,  35  ;  its  Tyrants, 
59 ;  taken  by  the  Romans,  62 

Syria,  Seleukid  kingdom  of,  67  ;  Roman 
conquest  of,  75  ;  Saracen  conquest  of, 
118  ;  Ottoman  conquest  of,  268 


T. 

Tacitus,  84,  87 

Tangier,  English  possession  of,  289 

Taras,  see  Tarentum 

Tarquinii,  dynasty  of,  at  Rome,  54 

Tartars,  the,  see  Moguls 

Tarentum,  Greek  city  of,  asks  help  of 

I'yrrhps,  58 

Tasmania,  English  colonization  in,  289 
Templars,  military  order,  foundation  of, 

171 ;    chief  strength  of  the  kingdom 

of  Jerusalem,   186;    »uppression   of, 

•05,  206 


Temujin,  see  Jenghiz  Khan 

Teutones,  their  invasion  of  Gaul  ana 
defeat  by  Marius,  70 

Teutones,  second  Aryan  swarm  in  West- 
ern Europe,  14;  their  settlements  in 
the  Empire,  99,  160 

Teutonic  Constitution,  changes  in,  164 

Teutonic  Knights,  military  order,  theil 
establishment  in  Prussia  and  Livonia, 
171,  194 ;  defeated  by  the  Moguls  al 
Lignitz,  196  ;  their  wars  with  Poland, 
230,  265  ;  abolished.  266 

Texas,  annexed  to  the  United  States, 
79,  366 

Thebes,  chief  city  of  Boeotia,  26 ;  helps 
Xerxes,  33  ;  in  alliance  with  Sparta, 
34 ;  joins  the  confederacy  againsl 
Sparta,  37  ;  her  greatness  and  wars 
with  Sparta,  37,  38 ;  joins  Athena 
against  Philip,  39 ;  her  revolt  and 
destruction  under  Alexander,  ib. 

Themistokles,  commands  Athenian  fleet 
at  Salamis,  33 

Theodisc,  meaning  of  the  word,  15 

Theodore  Laskares,  Emperor  at  Ni- 
kaia,  190 

Theodoric,  King  of  the  East-Goths, 
his  reign  in  Italy,  104 ;  extent  of  his 
dominions,  105 

Theodoric,  King  of  the  West-Goths, 
killed  at  Chalons,  102 

Theodosius  the  Great,  extinction  of 
paganism  under,  99  ;  his  reign  and 
penance,  101 

Theognis  of  Megara,  his  poems,  31 

Theophano,  sister  of  Basil  II.,  marries 
Otto  II.,  143 

Thermopylai,  battle  of,  33  ;  defeat  ol 
Antiochos  at,  65 

Thessalonica,  massacre  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of,  ioi 

Thessaly,  its  inhabitants,  20,  25 

Thiers,  M.,  President  of  the  French 
Republic,  353 

Thirty  Years'  War,  the,  269,  271 

ThucydidSs,  his  history  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War,  34 

Tiberius,  Emperor,  reign  of,  84,  85 

TigranSs,  King  of  Armenia,  subdued 
by  the  Romans,  77 

Tilly,  his  share  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  240 

Tilsit,  Peace  of,  335 

Timour,  rise  of,  225  ;  defeats  Bajazet 
at  Angora,  226 ;  death  of,  ib. 

Titus,  Emperor,  destroys  Jerusalem, 
86 ;  succeeds  Vespasian,  ib. ;  hit 
popular  name,  ib. 

Togrel  Beg,  founds  the  Seljuk  dynasty, 
helps  the  Caliph  Al  Kayem,  156 

Toledo,  'won  back  by  Alfonso  VI.,  154 


.393 


INDEX. 


Tolusa,  battle  of,  195 

1'oul,  Uishoprick  of,  annexed  to  France, 
254 

Toulouse,  capital  of  the  West-Gothic 
kingdom,  103  ;  crusades  against,  and 
annexed  to  France,  183,  191,  192 

Tours,  battle  of,  119 

Towns,  growth  of,  173 

Ttifalgar,  battle  of,  340 

Trajan,  Emperor,  87 ;  his  conquests, 
87,88 

Trapezous,  see  Trebizond 

Xrebizond,  Greek  Empire  of,  190 ; 
outlives  the  Kmpire  of  Constanti- 
nople, 191 ;  conquered  by  Mahomet 
II.,  227 

Trent,  Council  of,  250 

Tr&ves,  see  Trier 

Trier,  dwelling  place  of  the  Western 
Gesar,  93 ;  its  Archbishops,  and 
Electors  of  the  Empire,  170;  French 
annexation  of,  334. 

Triple  Alliance,  its  object,  288 

Troyes,  Treaty  of,  217 

Tunis,  taken  by  Charles  V.,  269 

7'urart,  meaning  of  the  word,  8 

Turanian  nations,  their  position  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  8  ;  their  later  set- 
tlements in  Europe,  is 

Turenne,  his  part  in  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  271 

Turkey,  see  Ottoman  Empire 

Turks,  their  settlement  in  Kurope,  16  ; 
when  first  heard  o£  115  ;  see  Ottoman 
and  Seljuks 

Tyrants,  meaning  of  die  word,  28,  78  ; 
in  Greece,  29,  32  ;  in  Sicily,  20,  31,  59 

Tyre,  taken  by  Alexander  the  Great,  40 

Tyrtaios,  his  poems  on  the  wars  of  Sparta 
and  MessenS,  30 


U. 

UlfUas,  Bishop,  preaches  Christianity 
to  the  Goths,  100  ;  his  translation  of 
the  Bible,  ib. 

Ulrica,  Queen  of  Sweden.  295 

I'inbrians,  51 

I  'nited  Provinces,  their  union,  284  ; 
their  independence  formally  acknowl- 
edged, 284,  271  ;  their  power,  259, 

294  ;  their  wars  with  France,  2585  259, 

295  ;  witli  England,  287,  288  ;  join  the 
Triple  Alliance  against  France,  ib.  : 
high  position  of,  in  Europe,  294 ;  the 
Stadholdership  made  hereditary,  318: 
their  decay,  ib.  ;    the   Hatavian   Re- 
public,   339 ;     the    Kingdom    of   the 
Netherlands,  352 

United  Stau-s,  310  ;  their  union  and  iu- 


pendence.  322 ;  formation  of  nc« 
states,  345  ;  purchase  of  Louisiana 
by,  ib.  •  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
Northern  States,  ib.  ;  annexation  o( 
Texas,  366  ;  secession  ami  re-con- 
quest of  the  Southern  States,  ib.  ; 
final  abolition  of  slavery,  ib. 

Universities,  growth  of,  231  ;  college* 
founded  in,  ib. 

Unterwalden,  Canton  of,  219 

Urban  II.,  Pope,  holds  the  Council  of 
Clermont,  157 

Urban  IV.,  Pope,  offers  the  crown  o< 
Sicily  to  Charles  of  Anjou,  192 

Urban  VI.,  Pope,  his  disputed  election, 
206. 

Uri,  Canton  of,  219 

Utrecht,  Treaty  of,  286,289,  joo 


V. 

Valens,  Emperor,  his  reign  in  the  East, 
loo  ;  killed  at  Hadrianople,  101 

Valentinian,  Emperor,  his  reign  in  the 
West,  wars  of,  with  the  Germans,  99, 
i  oo 

Valerian,  Emperor,  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Persians,  89 ;  perser.iiricnis  o( 
Christians  under,  92 

Valais,  see  Wallis 

Vandals,  their  settlement  in  Spain  and 
Africa,  104 

Van  Tromp,  Dutch  admiral,  287 

Varna,  Wladislaus  of  Poland,  killed  at, 
231 

V.irus,  Publius  Quinctilius,  defeated  by 
Arminius,  83 

Vasco  da  Gama,  his  discovery  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  274 

Vaud,  liberation  of,  339 

Veii,  Roman  conquest  of,  56 

Venaissin.  French  conquest  of,  218  : 
yiven  up  to  the  Popes,  ib.  ;  French 
annexation  of,  328 

Venetia,  Roman  conquest  of,  68 

Venice,  rise  of,  114  ;  her  relations  to  the 
'  rn  Empire,  115  ;  her  share  in 
the  fourth  crusade,  189  ;  her  Eastern 
dominion,  190  ;  her  constitution  and 
power  by  land,  211;  her  wars  with 
the  Turks,  243,  248,  293  ;  league  oi 
Cambray  formed  against,  245  ;  an- 
nexed to  Austria,  337  ;  revolt  and 
reconquest  of,  355  ;  united  toltaly,  356 

Vt-rcellre,  defeat  of  the  Cimbri  at,  70 

Verden,  Bishoprick  of,  annexed  to 
Sweden,  271 ;  given  up  to  Hanover, 
296 

Verdun,  Bishoprick  of,  annexed  U 
France,  254 


INDEX. 


399 


"a,  355  : 


Vespasian,  Emperoi,  reign  of,  86 

Victor,  anti-Pope,  178 

Victor  Amadeus   II.,    Duke  of  Savoy, 

growth  of  his  power,   292  ;    becomes 

King  of  Sicily,  293 
Victor  Emmanuel  II.,  of  Sardmi 

chosen  King  of  Italy,  356 
Vienna,  besieged  by  the  Turks,  252,  268, 

291  ;  Congress  of,  336 
Vienne,  sale  of  the  Dauphiny  of,  218 
Villehardouin,  writes  an  account  of  the 

taking  of  Constantinople,  108 
Virgil,t84 

Virginia,  English  colony  of,  277 
Visconti,  Gian  Galeazzo,  first  Duke  of 

Milan,  720  ;  Filippo-Maria,  220 
Vitellitis,  Emperor,  86 
Voltaire,  315 


W. 

Wagram,  battle  of,  336 

Wales,    its   final   union   with   England, 

214 
Wallachia,   united   with    Poland,   296 ; 

Russian  influence  in,  320  ;  Greek  war 

of  independence  begins  in,  357;  united 

with  Moldavia,  359 
Wallenstein,    his   share    in    the  Thirty 

Years'  War,  269 

Wallis,  its  conquests  from  Savoy,  260 
Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  309 
Warsaw,  Grand  Duchy  of,  335,  343 
Washington,  George,    President  of  the 

United  States,  321 
Waterloo,  battle  of,  333 
Wolf,   heads   the   Saxon  revolt  against 

Conrad     III.,     177;     Guel/s    called 

from,  ib. 

Waibling,  Gkibelins  called  from,  177 
Wellesley,  Marquess,  Governor-General 

of  India,  344 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  332 
W'Wj/i,  meaning  of  the  name,  107,  no 
SVenceslaus,  King  of  the  Romans,  203  ; 

founds  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  209 
Wends,  127  ;  conversion  of,  162 
VVessex,  kingdom  of,   132  ;    supremacy 

of  in  Britain,  145  ;    Danish  invasion 

of,  ib. 

West,  characters  of  its  history,  2,  3 
Western  Empire,  separation  of,  from  the 

East  under  Charles  the  Great,   123  ; 

beginning  of  its   German   character, 

124 ;   its  extent  under   Charles,   128  ; 

restored  by  Otto  the  Great,  140;  its 

union  with  the  German  kingdom,  140, 

162;  connexion  of,  with  England,  144; 

kingdom  of  Hurgundy  united  to,  147  ; 

relations   of,    with    the    Papacy,    149, 


160  ;  becones  more  and  more  Ger- 
man, 161,  162  ;  relations  of  Bohemia 
to,  163  ;  growth  of  towns  in,  173,  178; 
decline  of  its  power,  179,  200,  237, 
271  ;  the  great  Interregnum  in,  it. ; 
its  connexion  with  Hungary,  203;  with 
the  House  of  Austria,  204 ;  its  rela- 
tions with  the  Swiss  League,  220 : 
with  the  dukes  of  Burgundy,  222 ; 
becomes  purely  German,  251  ;  aboli- 
tion of,  333,  334 

Westphalia,  Kingdom  of,  335 

Westphalia,  Peace  of,  271 

William  of  Malmesbury,  198 

William  the  Silent,  Prince  of  Orange, 
leads  the  revolt  in  the  Netherlands, 
257 

William  II.  (IX.  of  Orange),  Stad- 
holder.  294 

William  of  Orange,  Stadholder,  his  de- 
fence of  the  United  Provinces,  284 ; 
his  marriage  and  election  to  the 
English  crown,  285,  288 

William  IV.  made  hereditary  Stad> 
holder,  288 

William  V.,  318 

William  the  Conqueror,  greatness  ot 
Normandy  under,  150;  his  claim  to 
the  English  crown,  151  ;  defeats  Har- 
old at  Senlac,  ib.  ;  crowned  King,  ib, 

William  the  Bad,  King  of  Sicily,  178 

William  the  Good,  King  of  Sicily,  178 

Winfrith,  see  Boniface 

Wismar  annexed  to  Sweden,  271 

Witt,  John  de,  murder  of,  295 

Wladislaus,  King  of  Hungary  and 
Poland,  killed  at  Varna,  231 

Wolfe,  General,  322 

Worms,  Diet  of,  252 

Wulfila,  see  Ulfilas 

Wycliffe,  John,  his  writings,  207;  spreail 
of  his  opinions  in  Bohemia,  ib. 


X. 

Xenophon,  his  history  of  the  Pelopon  • 

nesian  War,  35 
Xerxes,  son  of  Darius,  his  invasion  of 

Greece,  33 

Y. 

York,  93  ;  Constantino  Ae  Grent  be giog 
to  reign  at.  04 


Z. 

Zakynthos,  Roman  conquest  of,  tif 
/.niui,  battle  of,  63 


400 


INDEX. 


Xara,  taken  by  the  Crusaders,  189 

Zaragoza  won  by  Aragon,  154 

Zeno,  Eastern  Emperor,  reunion  of  the 

two  Empires  under,  103 
Zenobia,  Queen  of  the  East,  90 
Zeus,  chief  Greek  God,  29:  confounded 

with  the  Latin  Jupiter,  51 


Zollverem,  the,  353 

Zug,  joins  the  Swiss  League,  230 

Zurich,  joins  the  Swiss  League,  aao  ; 


preaching  of  Zwingli  in,  260 
wingli,  Ulrich,  preaching  a 


and 


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